Thunder Stone
by MyDearWatson
Summary: It's been ten years since the defeat of Zeref and now in February of X803 a new, more sinister evil begins to stir and set carefully concocted plans into motion. But Thunder Stone, an old and sturdy guild, will soon find itself at the epicenter of this new evil. They will either need to become the heroes they never saw themselves being or fall with the rest of humanity. SYOC
1. The Doomed

**A/N:** Yes, this is happening! Boom!

I don't own Fairy Tail!

Please enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 1: The Doomed**

 **January 26, X803**

A dripping sound echoed through a small house on the outskirts of Magnolia.

The couple living there had been stupid enough to feel safe in a home that was so far away from others. No one had heard them scream that night; or if they had, they had been smart enough to stay far away from the house.

The dripping echoed again, sounding like a stone thudding against the ground in the silence of the night. All noise from animals and the like had ceased the moment he had come upon the quaint home. Even the wind had stilled, amplifying the sounds that had just been coming from inside.

A single man stood inside the home. He took note of how inviting the house must have been to its owners and any guests that stopped by, but that was all ruined by the blood that was splattered thickly on the walls. He also noted that he had conducted overkill on this visit, but his emotions had gotten the better of him.

A single silver eye slid over to the mangled bodies that had been breathing minutes before. That eye narrowed at the bloody mess before him, feeling not quite satisfied, his anger not quite quelled.

A venomous voice erupted in the house, deep and resounding and bone chilling, "Fools," he said as he eye slid from what was left of the raven-haired man and the fair-haired woman, "Frauds. Pretenders." He was practically spitting acid at them, the anger rising again, "He who thought he could cleanse the world and she who thought she could save it. What a fitting end for you both. The world has been cleansed and saved from your naivety and arrogance."

The dripping echoed again. Irritation rushed through his entire body at the sound interrupting him. With remarkable speed, a bandaged hand shot out from under a tattered navy blue cloak and grabbed onto the handle of a long sword embedded into the wall. He finished tearing it through the mess of flesh belonging to the black-haired man. The torn body slipped with the sickening sound of spilling organs and blood and hacked flesh splattering against the floor. It landed near the woman's body, whose mouth and eyes were opened wide in terror, blood marring her once cute and porcelain face.

Irritation continued to pulse through the man. He was angry that it had come to this conclusion. He was enraged that neither of them had an inkling of who they were and what they had done. There was almost no satisfaction in killing them now, but he'd be damned if he was going to continue to let them live. There was absolutely no way he was going to let them have some ridiculous happy ending. That was not going to be how things ended.

"You both deserved this." The slicing and deadly tone taking over the house again, "Somewhere, deep in your core, you know who you were and no absurd magical reversal of curses or reincarnations were ever going to protect you from me. No matter where you ended up or what names you took, your deaths were always going to be at my hands. Zeref Dragneel. Mavis Vermillion. This was always your destiny."

With one last look upon the bloody mess, he turned and walked out of the house.

A bright full moon shone down upon him and the cold air of winter filled his lungs, seeming to calm him instantly. He pulled out an old cloth and wiped down the sword until it was shining in the moonlight. Once he saw the sparkle of light on the blade, it disappeared from his hand, returning to the requip space he had summoned it from.

He walked further from the house, snow crunching under the man's black boots. He glanced, only once, back at the small house, seeing the front door now swinging in the cold wind that had returned. He almost felt sorry for the poor soul that would find what was lying inside…almost.

A light beep caught his attention. He reached into his cloak, pulling out a thin and small tablet. He slid a bandaged finger across the smooth screen, bright light erupting from the device. He then pressed down on the tablet again and a hologram popped up above the screen.

"Yes?"

His voice was back to its usual calm indifference. While he was still irritated at the unsatisfied feeling pooling in his stomach, he wasn't going to let that ruin everything that was being set into motion. He would soon be over any emotions that the dead brought him. He had more important things to focus on.

"Master, I have eliminated the Noble house you gave to me," a hooded figure said.

"Good. Have you heard from the others?"

"Three and Four have completed their missions. Two and Five have reached their destinations the last I heard from them. I have yet to hear from the others."

"Things are moving smoothly then. In a week's time, everyone should have their missions completed. When they are finished, tell them to move back to the guild."

"Yes, master. Have you completed your own mission as well?"

"I have. Things can be set into motion now."

The hooded figure in the hologram gave a gleeful little laugh and he could picture their smile quite easily, "See you soon, master!"

He clicked the hologram closed and shoved the tablet back into his cloak. The crunching of snow began again as he moved forward into the cold night, the wind billowing out his cloak behind him.

"The Parade begins its march tonight."

 **. : + : .**

 **February 5, X803**

A heavily bearded man stepped out into the train station that ran twenty miles outside of the mountain town of Wintergreen. He breathed in deep, finding comfort in the colder climate that Wintergreen carried compared to many of the other towns and cities in Fiore. It felt clean and refreshing and like home.

Only a handful of other people had gotten off the train with him, leaving the station rather empty. He looked around, figuring he'd easily spot the pair that would be there to pick him up. Though, a scowl soon appeared on his face when he realized that his ride was nowhere to be seen. He pulled the thick white coat tighter around him, knowing he'd better start the walk home while he was still somewhat warm.

Though, it was after three steps across the train station that he heard the roar of an engine and shouts belonging to the idiots that belonged to him.

"Slow down! We're gonna crash!"

"I know what I'm doing! Diesel ain't the only one who can drive!"

"Yeah, well, you return one of his cars in pieces and I'm pretty sure he'll make sure you won't ever drive again."

"I can take that loser on any time!"

While the two continued bickering, they failed to notice the train station coming into view and the workers of the station waving them down to stop.

The bearded man sighed and let off a loud whistle. It caught the attention of the pair instantly.

"SIR!" the driver shouted.

"Stupid!" his companion said, "Hit the breaks!"

The sound of screeching tires filled the train station. The vehicle came to a halt right before the ground became the wood of the train station platform. The pair in the car let out sighs of relief before looking up into the eyes of the bearded man, laughing nervously.

The train station workers turned to look back at the man with relieved looks, one of them saying, "Thank you, Mr. Maddox," before they returned back to their duties.

He nodded to the workers before setting a hard stare on the pair still in the car.

"Sir! Welcome home!"

Maddox grumbled as he walked towards the car, "How many times do I have to tell you not to call me sir, Titan? And get out of the car, I'm driving home."

"I can handle it!"

Maddox looked down to the barely an inch of a space between the ground and the wooden platform and then looked back up at Titan with a flat stare.

"Fine, fine, I'll move," he huffed, "Tejil, move to the back."

"What? Hell no! It was your reckless driving that got you kicked out of the driver's seat! I'm not moving for you!"

Titan huffed again, but moved to the back of the car without further argument.

Maddox threw his pack into the back of the car with Titan before getting into the driver's seat of the sleek black SUV. He started up the vehicle and the trio was off towards Wintergreen.

"Where's Tiger?" Maddox asked, glancing back at Titan.

"He didn't want to come out into the cold."

Tejil laughed at the pouting face of the large and muscled man, "More like he was having more fun hanging out with Ink and Diesel and you couldn't handle that."

The brunette was answered with a heavy kick to the back of his seat.

Maddox shook his head, the colorful beads strung randomly throughout his beard clacking against each other as he did so; but he finally let a smile slip across his face, "I hope things have been going well at the guild while I've been in Clover Town."

"Things have been as normal and boring as ever," Tejil answered, running a hand through his shaggy hair, "A few missions through the week, but nothing overly exciting. One of them was even here in town helping the post office deliver some backed up mail. Miyako and her team cleared that one in a few hours."

"That does sound a bit boring," Maddox said, scratching his chin, "But it gets like this in the winter sometimes. I'm sure things will pick up soon enough. Also, speaking of excitement, where is your third wheel, Kokou?"

"Pffffft! Diesel wouldn't let her anywhere near his cars!" Tejil said with a loud snicker, "You should have seen me convincing him to let Titan into the car."

"Yes, I do suppose that would have been a bad combination," Maddox said, picturing Titan and Kokou in the car together, knowing it would only take about two seconds before a fight would break out between them.

"When we left, we heard her shouting at Diesel, calling him an evil black dragon."

"I still don't know how he gets black dragon as a name and I get rock monster," Titan said, grumbling.

'You are a rock monster though,' both Maddox and Tejil thought, knowing better than to voice that opinion to the man in the back.

"So, how did the Guild Master Summit go?" Tejil asked, glancing over at the older man.

Any happy emotions he had been feeling went straight out the window upon hearing that question, "It was…a lot to discuss."

"You don't have to talk around what the summit was for," Titan said, crossing his arms, "We've read the newspapers here in town and on our tablets. It's about all those murders that happened in the last week."

Maddox was quiet for a moment, deciding whether or not to discuss what was happening in Fiore with his mages or not, "I don't have too much information I can give you boys that you don't already know. If you want to hear more on the subject, you can join me at the townhall when I meet with the council to discuss what's going on."

"Nah," Tejil waved him off, "We can speculate what's going on at the guild just as well as at the townhall. If you think we need to know something you'll tell us, yeah?"

"Yes."

While the two men seemed satisfied with his answer, Maddox still felt uncertain about telling his guild any major details. He had seen the crime scene photos and what he saw was…not right. It was cruel and sadistic with what happened to most of the people that were killed, especially that couple in Magnolia. He was certain he was going to have nightmares over it and he didn't see the need to spread that horror onto his mages.

Light banter filled the car after that between Tejil and Titan, passing the time until the car came up the last steep hill that led to Wintergreen. Once they were over the hill, what laid before them was another comforting sight to the guild master.

It was a rather large town, but not quite big enough to be a city. Plateau after plateau created the town, each level holding specific buildings.

At the very bottom held the shopping and business district, where all sorts of things could be found and sold. Many of the shops made wintergreen infused lip balms, lotions, medicines, gum, and many other uses of the wintergreen plant that grew in abundance in the town. There were also a good number of blacksmiths in town, creating things from weapons to designer shelves that they sold in town and exported to other towns and cities. And bars, taverns, and pubs were aplenty.

Up on the next plateau sat the housing district, the homes there being just as sturdy as the people who occupied them and the mountains that surrounded them.

On the plateau above that were large, important buildings, such as the townhall and the main company that exported Wintergreen's goods – Wintergreen Inc..

The next plateau, the one that the trio in the car were currently on, held their mage guild – Thunder Stone. It was built right into the mountains, sticking out like a 3-D carving.

There was one final plateau, high above the guild hall that disappeared into the foggy clouds that often hung around the mountains. This area held the battle arena that was used during the Spring and Fall Festivals for S-Class and A-Class exams.

Since it was mid-day, the town was bustling with activity, people moving around their homes and down in the shopping district. It was a town that Maddox whole-heartedly loved, not just because he had grown up there, but because it was a town that took care of itself. No one boasted about money or showed it off and no one went cold or hungry. Everyone cared for one another and everyone did their part to make the town run like a well-oiled machine. Even the council was made up of townspeople rather than having a single person, like a mayor, running things.

"Welcome home, sir!"

Maddox smiled, deciding to let the 'sir' go this time. He was home. Even if where he had came from and what laid before his path was news he'd rather not know about, everything felt okay in that moment because he was home.

* * *

 **A/N:** Well there we are! I hope you enjoyed it!

 **Credits**

 **Maddox Huxley – MyDearWatson**

 **Titan Pumice and Tiger – TPACK245**

 **Tejil Coeurdelune – Resmesh**

So, this has been on my mind for a long, long time. I fully believe a reboot was needed for Thunder Stone. Not only because Thunder Stone being the first SYOC I ever made, so there were bound to be things I wished I had done differently because of that, but also because of all the things that happened in canon Fairy Tail. Many things now no longer make sense for the original Thunder Stone. I had also felt like I got myself stuck for a long time with the arc the original Thunder Stone was on and it felt daunting dealing with not only the end of Thunder Stone I had planned but adding it on top of the canon ending for Fairy Tail with dealing with Alvarez. I couldn't do it. There was just no way I could fit two massive wars like that into the original. Plus, things have greatly changed for my main villain. I didn't get things completely worked out for him until it was well into the story and by then I couldn't go back and change everything I would have needed to change.

So! A reboot was decided upon! And I've been working and working and working on it to smooth out everything I wanted to do with it. You can ask Dread and Origm about it. I've been bouncing ideas off of both of them and working things out with them and they know how long I've been squaring things away. But I'm finally ready to get this thing started!

So then, those of you that read the original Thunder Stone, welcome back! And for those of you just tuning in for the first time, welcome! Thunder Stone is near and dear to me and I've always wanted to finish it, so my plan is to go back to Thunder Stone Thursdays for it. If something comes up, like a vacation or something personal going on in real life, I will give you all a heads up on delays on my profile, that way you all know what's going on. I have made myself promise to myself to be better about updating as I know I've slowed down a lot from what I used to do. But I think I'm in a good place again to be able to be more frequent with updates.

Now then, let's get some information out of the way.

First off! This is an SYOC, but I will be reaching out to some of the people who sent in characters to me for the original Thunder Stone to see if they would like their character in the reboot. As you can see, there are already returning characters, such as Maddox, Titan, and Tejil. But I know there will be characters that are not returning and that will open up slots for new characters.

Now, for these new characters I will be accepting, it will be a bit different this time. I will not be doing first come first serve. Simply send in a character using the Character Form on my profile and I will be selecting characters by quality. So really spend some time on your characters and make them stand out to me. I don't know how many new character I will be accepting as I don't know how many characters will be returning yet. But still, don't be shy about sending a character into me.

I will only accept characters through a PM.

I will not be accepting any Slayers of any kind. They will be immediately denied.

The ranking system for characters will be different as well. That will be explained on my profile, so please be sure to read over it before sending in a character. Do not select a rank for your character yet. That is something we will discuss via PM. If you wish to try for an S-Class position, your character cannot be any younger than 20. I already have two S-Class planned out and hopefully a third one as well. So there won't be many spots open for that Rank.

For any returning characters, I would appreciate it if you would fill out the new form I have created. If you feel they can easily transfer over to the new setting and timeline, I can work with you on that without filling out the form completely. That is something we can talk about in a PM. Again this is ONLY for returning characters.

New characters MUST fill out the character form on my profile.

Any restrictions on magic, personalities, etc. will be on my profile, so please look at that as well before starting your character.

If you have any questions about the town of Wintergreen, please don't hesitate to ask. I tried to put enough information about the town in this chapter for everyone to have a good grasp of how things work or look on a basic level.

Also, the chapter titles are going to be song titles. I've been wanting to do that for a while for a story and I figured I would do it this time around. So I'm only saying this once, I don't own any of the songs that I'm using as a title. Mostly, I wanted to be able to let you all in on what song inspired me for the chapter. The song for this chapter is The Doomed by A Perfect Circle.

Again, please read over my profile for any information I did not put in this note.

Usually my notes will not be this long, but I needed to go over information with you all.

I think that's about it (though I'm sure I'm missing something).

Please read and enjoy! And I'll be looking forward to seeing old and new characters popping up!

I'll be working on the next chapter throughout the week so as to have it up in a week's time by next Thursday, so see you all then!

Yours Truly,

MyDearWatson


	2. Have a Drink On Me

**A/N:** CHA! Second chapter!

I don't own Fairy Tail!

Please enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Have a Drink On Me**

 **February 5, X803**

Maddox rubbed the bridge of his nose from inside the main meeting room of the townhall. He knew it was going to be rough to have this conversation with the council, but they hadn't stopped to give him a word in edge wise since he had introduced the topic of discussion – the nine murders that happened within the last week, all ranging from large noble families to the couple in Magnolia to an old official of the Crocus Library.

"Father," a gentle hand landed on his shoulder, "Maybe it's time to interrupt them?"

Maddox looked over at the middle-aged woman next to him, her silky black hair looking so much like her mother's in that moment. His eyes softened briefly while the noise around him diminished. Milada had that effect on him, especially when her green eyes gave him that knowing, understanding look. Often, he felt like his daughter knew more about what was going on and how to handle things better than he did.

Another loud shout echoing through the room broke his small moment of peace and he nodded at her, "Yes, I suppose so."

He turned back to the large, round white oak table they all sat at. He let off a loud whistle, knowing that there would be no use trying to talk over them.

The debating group went silent upon hearing the sharp sound, all of them turning to look at the guild master and his gently smiling daughter.

"Debating like this isn't going to get anything done," Maddox began, "We didn't even get a plan in place during the Summit."

"Then what was the Summit for?" a middle-aged man asked, a deep frown etched into his face.

"It was to ensure that we all knew what was going on and if anyone had any information about any of the murders. And to advise our towns and guilds that we were looking into the situation and that nightly watches would go up upon our return."

"And that's all you have? Night guards and passing around information that the whole country already knows?" the same man snapped, an angry vein pulsing along his forehead, "How am I supposed to make sure that my family stays safe? How are we supposed to make sure that something similar won't happen to our town?"

"Calm down, Silvio," an older gentleman said, running a hand through his black beard that had a few graying patches through it. While the older man seemed calm and polite in appearance and by the tone of his voice, his sharp black eyes were fierce and demanding, easily silencing the other man, "I am sure Maddox is doing his best with the information he has. It is not as if he can become a detective overnight and solve the mystery behind nine murders. I would like to see you try that."

Silvio only huffed in response as he crossed him arms and turned away from the black-haired man.

"While I do agree with Nestor, knowing it's impossible to solve the murders overnight, was there any new information given to you at the Summit?"

Maddox turned to the woman who had spoken to him. He knew her as Prisca Roman and she was one of the blacksmiths in town, specializing in interior décor, "There wasn't much that anyone knew," he said with a sigh, "We do believe that the murders were all done by different people though."

"Why do you think that?" Prisca asked, her thickly muscled arms tensing in fear. While she, and the rest of the room, knew that there had to be multiple people committing the murders, she never imagined that there were nine people out there doing these things.

"It's in the way that each murder was conducted. From reviewing the crime scene photos, it's apparent that each one was committed in a different way."

"Do you have those photos with you? Can we see them for ourselves?" Silvio asked.

"No, and I wouldn't show them to you even if I did have them. Just trust me in knowing what we saw and how horrible they all were."

"Why go after an official of the library though?" Prisca asked.

"He must have had information or knew where to look in the Crocus Library for information on something these people did not want us knowing about," Nestor answered this time, settling his chin on top of his hands with a worrisome look across his face, "But more questions come from that theory, most importantly being what that information could have been."

"Correct," Maddox said, "We're certain that was why the library official was killed and we talked a long time about what it could have been that he knew, but we came up empty handed."

"Do you believe it had anything to do with Zeref? Maybe a radical group is trying to reignite what he wanted to accomplish?"

Maddox sighed again, looking at Milada next to him, who had asked the question, "We thought about that too, but there have been no rumors or whispers about a group like that. We were certain that if Zeref radicals were out there causing trouble, we would have gotten word of it by now."

"And what of the other guild masters?" Silvio asked, "What did they want to do about this problem?"

"Well, Laxus Dreyar of Fairy Tail, Bacchus Groh of Quatro Cerberus and myself wanted to take a more direct approach in order to avoid any further murders and putting a stop to whoever did this. We wanted to become directly involved in the investigation and use the mages at our disposal to do some tracking and clue hunting, but we were outvoted on what the guilds would be doing when it comes to the murders."

"And what was voted on?" Nestor asked.

"We would hold off on becoming directly involved in order to keep our towns and mages protected from whoever is doing this. We are to leave it to the proper authorities for now. If something else happens or we are asked by the Rune Knights or the Queen herself, then we will look towards more direct involvement. Until then, we will keep our eyes and ears open for any information and keep a watch over our towns."

"So basically, we're just supposed to wait around until another murder happens," Silvio said, practically growling out his response.

Maddox simply stayed quiet, not having a good retort for the man; especially when he felt the same way himself.

"Tch, what use is it having guilds and mages if you aren't going to do anything?"

"Silvio!" Prisca hissed.

"No! They sit in their guilds feeling safe and happy because they know they can defend themselves. And they go on these happy little missions, having happy little adventures while we're out here scared, wondering if someone is going to attack us!"

Nestor rose up at this remark, his tall and massive size towering over the table and his eyes so sharp they should have been shooting daggers at Silvio, "May I remind you that my family has been part of Thunder Stone for generations and my son is currently a member of Thunder Stone. We were there in the war against Alvarez and we lost many good people. They died protecting Fiore so you could go on living your happy little life in your happy little tavern. And if I am remembering correctly, mages of Thunder Stone saved your daughter a few years ago. And Thunder Stone has given back to this community for many, many years, so I hope you are not accusing these mages of being selfish, uncaring people who do not look out for this town."

A thick and tense silence filled the room, everyone looking anywhere but at Silvio and Nestor.

"That was a little overdramatic," Milada said with a small chuckle, finally breaking the tension in the room.

Nestor cleared his throat as he sat back down, "I apologize if I seemed out of line, but do know that most of us here do not feel that you are not looking out for us."

"Thank you," Maddox said, happy that Milada had been part of the meeting today, "If I receive any more news about the murders or how we will be handling things, I will let you all know; but if there are no other questions, I feel it is time to call an end to this meeting."

Many people nodded in agreement, bringing the meeting to an end. As people began filing out of the room, Silvio at the head of the exiting crowd, Prisca and Nestor stayed behind to speak with Maddox and Milada.

"I have your shelving unit finished if you would like to come pick it up," Prisca said, sweeping her blonde hair up into a messy bun and rolling her sleeves up, preparing herself for when she returned to work.

"Lovely," Milada smiled at her, "Mind if I walk with you back to your shop?"

Prisca nodded in response, the two walking out of the meeting room.

"Your daughter has quite the calming effect," Nestor said, standing before Maddox.

"Yes, that's why she's here with me often."

"I hope Silvio did not upset you."

"I'm used to that grump," Maddox said as the pair began the trek out of the building, "He's always been like that. I think it's mostly because he suspects that Angelo has gotten to his daughter."

"Your bartender? You think he has?"

"Oh, I know he has…on three separate occasions, just don't tell Silvio that. He'll run Angelo out of town and I'll never, ever find a bartender to replace him!"

"On three occasions?" Nestor asked, a slight smile appearing on his lips, "How do you know? Did he…well, for a lack of a better expression, did he do the walk of shame?"

"Angelo? Walk of shame? Never," Maddox said with a heavy laugh, "It was more like he walked into the guild in the morning with a triumphant look on his face and what appeared to be her "handkerchief" in hand."

"Appeared to be?"

Maddox gave the man a knowing look until it finally clicked in Nestor's head and the gentleman gave a slight blush, "Ah, I see."

"Yes, and that girl loves the attention, so I suppose it all works out fine."

The two placed on their winter coats before stepping out into the cold afternoon. The sun was shining, causing any building covered in snow to glitter.

"Why don't you actually come to The Thunderdome and have a drink with me? I definitely need one after today," Maddox said, looking over at the other man.

"I suppose it has been a while since I made a visit to the guild. And Angelo is a delight to speak with."

"So that's a yes then?"

"Yes. And you can catch me up on how Gilbert has been doing in the guild as well."

Maddox went from a wide smile to letting out the heaviest sigh of the day, "Your son is…well…are you sure he's your son? I mean, I know he looks like you and all, but seriously, what happened?"

Nestor's face fell slightly for the briefest of moments before donning his gentlemanly face again, "I know not of which you speak."

"Sure, sure, that's only because you don't have to deal with him on a daily basis anymore," Maddox grumbled as the pair made their way up to the guild.

 **. : + : .**

"I hope you don't take Silvio's words to heart," Prisca said as she walked through the lowest plateau of Wintergreen that held the shopping district.

Many people were out and about in the afternoon sun despite the coldness the air held. The people of Wintergreen had grown accustomed to the cold and snow-filled winters. The snow had become packed down in the streets with people walking over it so many times and the shopping district seemed to hold a slight heat to it from people moving around so much, the cooking going on at restaurants, and the blacksmiths having their workstations in full swing. To both Prisca and Milada, it was a comforting heat to walk through as they had both grown up in Wintergreen. There was also a lovely scent of mint mixed in with the air, one that easily brought back all sorts of memories.

"You don't need to worry," Milada answered, pulling on her black gloves to straighten them out, "I understand why he is upset and worried. Nine murders in a week is a lot to take in."

Prisca nodded, "True, but he still shouldn't have said those things. We love having you all and the guild here. It's a comforting feeling that we have people watching over our town. And we're not such bad fighters ourselves," she said with a smile, flexing one of her muscled arms.

Milada smiled in return, "Woe to the person who tries to pick a fight with the blacksmiths of Wintergreen."

The two ladies laughed together as they continued towards Prisca's shop. Along the way, they passed kids running around, laughing while their mother's shouted after them. Smells of Wintergreen ram filled the air while the echoes of other blacksmiths at work reverberated around the bottom district.

They were a few buildings down from Prisca's workshop when they heard a loud and boisterous voice call out to them.

"Friends!"

Prisca let out a sigh while Milada laughed and smiled. They stopped to see a rather large man outside a food stand selling Wintergreen lamb sticks. The heavy and thick plated black armor he wore clunked as he walked towards them, the armor being marred with battle damage. And on his back was a large, double-sided warhammer. It really was a wonder how the man could move so easily with everything his body was carrying.

"Hello, Samuel," Milada said, her green eyes sparkling with mirth.

"Look how beautiful you ladies are today! It's such a pleasure having women like you as friends!"

"Thanks, Samuel," Prisca said with a flat look while Milada continued laughing.

He reached out and grabbed Milada's hand, bending down on a knee, "You could rival any battle goddess!"

Milada laughed out loud, "You goof!"

"Where are we off to on this fine, winter afternoon?" he asked as he stood back up, the sun shining off of his bald head.

"I am picking up a shelving unit that Prisca has made for me. Would you like to accompany us?"

As Milada said this, Prisca was waving her hands and quickly shaking her head no, but either Milada did not see her or had simply ignored her reaction…most likely the latter. Prisca had a thing about letting Samuel into her workshop after he had crashed through it once before on accident. And while Milada could understand her want of the man staying away from her workshop, she also found their interactions rather humorous.

Samuel's blue eyes lit up at the offer, "Of course I will accompany you! It will give me time to tell you about the time I fought off mountain bandits on the back of the biggest Wintergreen ram! They called him Ox! What a fitting name, no?!"

"Why do you do this to me?" Prisca said in a low hiss.

"It's not so bad if you imagine the story in your head. They're kind of funny actually," Milada said, "Besides, he can help me carry back the shelving unit. Right, Samuel?"

"Ha! Child's play! I could carry back ten of them for you!"

"See?" Milada said with a smile, which only had Prisca groaning in return.

"And then we can buy a drink for the amazing blacksmith that made it upon returning!"

"No, no, no, I have other work to do."

"Nonsense! Everyone has time to have a drink at The Thunderdome!" Samuel said, striking a dramatic pose.

"You might as well let him buy you that drink so you can get back to the shop sooner," Milada said.

Prisca narrowed her eyes at Milada, "Is it too late to take back saying that we love having you all here?"

Milada only laughed in reply as they finished their walk to Prisca's workshop.

 **. : + : .**

From the outside, the Thunder Stone guild was a massive structure. Being carved directly out of the mountainside of Wintergreen, it popped out like a 3-D picture. It was tall and wide, taking up most of the plateau that it was stationed on. Windows littered the top half of the guild, which was where the dorms were located, allowing natural light to enter. The dorm windows were large and circular and filled with thick glass that would not break easily. And a few chimneys dotted the very top of the guild.

The bottom half of the guild had less windows, but enough of them that those passing by could peek into the guild. These windows were much longer and skinnier than those of the dorms. The grand, double oak doors were front and center with 'Thunder Stone' carved into the stone above the door. A sign bolted to one of the doors read, 'Welcome! The Thunderdome is open!'.

Samuel easily pushed open the doors while carrying the shelving unit with one hand over his shoulder. Milada followed closely behind him, practically dragging Prisca along with her.

"We're home!" Samuel announced, causing a few heads lounging around in the front room to look over at him. Many of those same heads shook and rolled their eyes upon seeing who it was, quickly going back to what they had previously been doing.

The front room of the guild was a simple lounge and waiting area with a few couches and large chairs and coffee tables dotted around it. There were a few large cubicles along the right wall where people needing missions completed could consult with a mage, usually an S-Class mage or Maddox himself, to work out what they needed done, the level of difficulty, and how much the mission would cost. There were several different doors around the front room that led to several different places, but the door that Samuel and Milada were aiming for was to the left of the entrance.

Above solid red double doors with black doorknobs was a sign lit up that read, 'The Thunderdome'. Samuel pushed open those doors as well to walk into the guild's bar.

It was a stylish, yet comfortable bar in colors of red, black, and silver. To the right of the doors was a massive bar that took up the entire right wall. Stools with cushy black tops lined the bar, while the bar itself was made out of smoothed mahogany wood stained ebony. Glasses, ice, and fruit filled areas behind the bar while there was also one large fridge full of bottled beer and cider that was off to the far-left side. The rest of the of the bar was filled with beer taps, twenty different taps to be precise. Most of these taps were a constant throughout the year, such as Wintergreen Ale always being something customers could ask for; but there were a few taps that were changed out depending on the season. Behind the taps was a wall of liquor. Anything from Wintergreen Vodka to Midi Red Wine to Bosco Black Bourbon was there. It was a wall full of colorful ambers, browns, whites, and reds all shimmering and ready to be consumed.

To the left of the doors along the walls were large and comfy booths, all rounded out to be able to face the large stage that took up the wall directly in front of the entrance doors. The booths were made up of sleek black tables and plush red seating. They were also raised up to be able to see the stage over the tall and skinny black round tables that filled the open area of the bar. Every table was completed with mint scented candles and the whole bar was filled with warm hanging lamps that could easily have their brightness changed from behind the bar.

Everything in the bar was handled by one single man – Angelo Rothalio.

There he stood behind the bar in all his bowtie and suspender glory. Playfulness filled his onyx eyes as he smiled at a steaming man in front of the bar.

"You stay away from my daughter!" Silvio said with a shaking fist.

"Of course! I would never dream of becoming involved with your daughter. She is too much of a lady for a lowly bartender like me!"

Silvio sized the man up, but he knew he could not take on the fit and muscled man if he pushed him too far; not that he knew Angelo was more of a lover than a fighter. But Angelo looked like a man's man regardless of his personality and the bowtie he wore, even his square jaw and sculpted chin looked manly.

"I still feel suspicious," Silvio said, but lightened up when a drink was slid towards him by Angelo, "But it's good to know that you know that you're not good enough for my daughter," he said as he picked up the drink, "A Vodka Cran?"

"Yes, sir!"

"That's my favorite. How did you know?"

"Let's just call it bartender's intuition," Angelo said, unable to hide a sly smile, "I had a hunch you might like a little sour in your drink."

Silvio simply nodded, not picking up on the fact that Angelo was making fun of the man's sour attitude. He took a drink of the cocktail, his eyes lighting up in surprise, "Wintergreen Vodka and Iceberg cranberry juice? Those are the best two to use!"

"Well, I only serve the best here."

"Maybe you aren't so bad after all," Silvio said as he slid some jewels towards Angelo before walking towards an empty table.

"Thank you, sir! And please do tell that lovely daughter of yours that she has some beautiful handkerchiefs!"

Just a few seats down the bar from where Angelo stood, Nestor coughed on his drink while Maddox had Fire Dragon Whiskey shooting out his nose, burning it in the process.

Milada had simply started laughing as she, Prisca, and Samuel sat down in front of the bartender.

"Drinks for my friends, my friend!" Samuel announced, setting the shelving unit down next to him.

"My pleasure," Angelo answered, chuckling along with Milada in the process, "And welcome back to The Thunderdome!"

* * *

 **A/N:** And there we are! I hope you all enjoyed!

 **Credits**

 **Nestor Melville – Mary Allen**

 **Silvio Basso – MyDearWatson**

 **Prisca Roman – MyDearWatson**

 **Milada Huxley – MyDearWatson**

 **Samuel Steele – Benthino**

 **Angelo Rothalio – Origm2012**

All right! Not much to say this time around, mostly because it's so late and I want to get this posted. But I made it on time for Thunder Stone Thursdays! CHA!

Thank you to everyone who messaged me, reviewed, favorited, and followed this story! The response to this reboot was just amazing and I just loved how much everyone was excited about it! So thank you, thank you, thank you!

And the characters I received were just as amazing! So thank you for working so hard on them!

At this time, I'm full up on characters, so I will not be accepting anymore for Thunder Stone. I will however need some characters eventually for other guilds and some possible villains. I will ask for them in my A/N when that happens.

I tried to get through all the PMs as quickly as I could, but I know I missed some of you. I will get to you if I haven't answered you!

Song Inspiration: Have a Drink On Me by AC/DC

Also, I know that The Thunderdome is used in the Mad Max movies, but it just worked so well for the bar name! As usual, I do not own The Thunderdome name!

Random Note: I know that a vodka cranberry cocktail is called a Cape Cod, but I could not call it that in the story as a Cape Cod is named after Cape Cod, Massachusetts where they are famous for cranberries. And since that is not a real place in the FT world, I did not want to go with that name. I did more research on alcohol for this chapter than I was expecting to…

I think those were the main things I wanted to get through.

Thanks again for the wonderful reviews!

I'll have another chapter up in a week!

Yours Truly,

MyDearWatson


	3. Kiss With a Fist

**A/N:** CHA! New chapter!

I don't own Fairy Tail!

Please enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Kiss With a Fist**

 **February 7, X803**

Heavy rock music blasted through a large garage containing several sleek looking cars, trucks, and SUVs. There was one black and chrome colored motorcycle up on a perch of stone, glistening and shining and knowing it was its owner's favorite vehicle. A black SUV was parked away from the other cars near a work bench with a tall and nicely muscled man staring at intently.

Diesel Evander may not have been the smartest man around, but he knew cars and mechanics like the back of his hand. He had started detailing the SUV as soon as Maddox had returned it to him and now he was putting the finishing touches on it.

He had washed it twice and put a coat of wax over it. He had made sure all dirt and grime had been cleaned from the tires and windows. He had cleaned out the inside of the car several times until he could see himself gleaming off of every surface. He made sure to refill the gas tank, checked the engine, the car battery, and even the air filter. Everything seemed as pristine as it ever was when he finished with one of his cars, but he still could not shake a horrible feeling in his stomach.

"I know that idiot drove you, Lola," he grumbled, running a hand through his dark blue hair to slick it back out of his face, "But you gotta tell me, baby, you gotta show me that he did."

"Don't you think you're taking it too far this time?" a calm voice asked.

Diesel looked up at the little cat that almost blended in with the black SUV he sat atop of. What gave the cat away was the strikingly bright orange stripe up along his back that moved up into a mohawk on top of his head. The orange line was broken by a tiny, gray leather jacket that had the guild symbol in white on the back of it – a mountain split in half by a lightning bolt.

His black tail swished back and forth, his black eyes matching those of his partner's, "Can't you just believe that Titan didn't drive the car?"

"Hell no!" Diesel said, "I know that loser drove this car! You saw that stupid grin on his face when he and Tejil left here to go pick up Maddox!"

"He could have just been excited about going to get the master."

"No one has an infuriatingly smug smirk like that going to pick up the old man, Ink!"

"You know, you could have just drove the car yourself to get Maddox and you wouldn't be here losing your mind over it."

"I had other cars to work on!"

"Mmhmm," Ink said, "Well you've been working on this car for about two days now and you haven't found anything yet. Can't you just call it a day already? We missed out on going on a mission with the others because you had to do your monthly car cleaning."

"That mission wasn't worth much anyways," Diesel waved off the comment, his attention turning back to the interior of the SUV, "We wouldn't have gotten many jewels with it being cut fours ways."

"Yeah, but it's better than sitting here for three days watching you go crazy," Ink mumbled under his breath.

"What was that?!"

"I _said_ , it's been three days and they still aren't back. I thought it was going to be an easy clean up of a nest of cliff cats that had gotten too close to Wintergreen?"

Silence was the little cat's only answer. He looked down to see Diesel's eyes wide open in horror as they focused on something in the driver's seat that he could not see.

But Diesel saw it. And now that he saw it, it was like a giant, burning stain in his car. There embedded into the seat, in between the back and bottom of the seat where one could barely see it, was a red string. Diesel reached out and pulled it out of the seat, staring at it in between his fingers with an inferno raging in his eyes.

"Aaaaand I lost him," Ink said with a sigh. He counted down on his paw, "Three, two, one."

"I'm gonna fucking kill him," Diesel said lowly before that raging inferno was released, "I'm gonna do it this time! I will, Ink! You can bet your ass, all our savings, and all my cars that I'm gonna fucking kill him!"

His words were practically roars, echoing through the garage over the music. He shot up out of the room, on the hunt for Titan.

It did not take him long to find the large man as he threw open the doors of The Thunderdome. There stood Titan at one of the tall black tables, locked in an intense arm-wrestling match with a young woman with a mess of wild black hair.

"Titan, you asshole!" Diesel shouted as soon as he saw him, marching right up to the table.

Titan jumped at the shout and looked up, giving the woman he was struggling against the advantage she needed. A hard thump was heard next, Titan's arm being slammed against the table.

"Kokou wins!" she announced, a crooked smile covering her face.

"What?! No fair! There was interference!" he said, motioning to Diesel.

"No excuses!" she said, "Rock monster lost to Kokou again! That makes it fifty-seven wins for Kokou and negative twenty-six wins for the rock monster!"

"Negative…?" Titan mumbled in confusion, counting along his fingers, "That doesn't make any sense! I can't have negative wins!"

"That's how badly the rock monster is at this game!"

"Whatever," he said with a huff, turning his irritation onto Diesel, who was now standing in front of him with rage pouring off of him. Titan took a moment to step back from the man, wanting some breathing room if he actually needed to make an escape, "What the hell is your problem?! You made me lose the match!"

"Like I care," Diesel snapped before he lifted the red string to eye level in between them, "Do you know what this is?"

Titan stared at it before cocking an eyebrow at the other man.

"Oooohhhh!" Kokou said as she popped up in between them to intensely study the string, "Kokou knows! That's a string from the rock monster's skirt!"

"It's a kilt!"

"I don't care what the hell it is!" Diesel shouted over the both of them, "I found it in my car!"

"And? I rode in it with Tejil to go get the master."

"I found it in the driver's seat! Mind explaining that?!"

Titan paled at his words, little beads of sweat beginning to form on his forehead, "It probably just floated over to the driver's side."

The room was filled with deadpan stares upon hearing his explanation.

"Kokou thinks the rock monster should start running," she whispered, taking several steps away from the pair.

A heavy fist went swinging after she stepped away, causing the table they had been arm-wrestling on to go crashing to the ground.

"It floated?! I'll make you float right into unconsciousness!" Diesel shouted, just as his fist flew past Titan's nose, the large man barely being able to dodge the attack, "I knew I shouldn't have let you go to the train station with Tejil! Where is that loser anyways?! I'll knock him out with you for letting you drive!"

Outside the doors of the bar, Maddox stood pinching the bridge of nose. Beside him stood a young woman with striking silver eyes. She wore a smirk, though she did not look all that amused with the shouts and noises coming from the other side of the door.

Maddox then looked to the right of the red doors, seeing a mop of brown hair leaning up against the wall.

Tejil looked up at him with a nervous smile, "I guess right now isn't the best time for a drink."

Maddox gave him a look that said, 'You think?', causing the young man to give a small laugh before taking off across the front room and through one of the other doors attached to it.

"I guess we have to go in sooner or later," Maddox said with a sigh, the woman next to him nodding in agreement. He pushed open the red doors, revealing Diesel and Titan going at each other. They were throwing punches and kicks at each other while Kokou was egging them on with cheers and shouts of bets on who would win. He glanced down at the woman, "My money is on Diesel this time."

The woman shook her head, causing her lightly curled, dark blue hair to shake around her, "We aren't here to make bets, right?"

Maddox let out another sigh, "The least anyone could let me do is bet on them if they're going to tear up my bar room."

"Seriously? You would bet on your mages while we have more important matters to look into?"

Maddox stayed silent at her question, not wanting her to know how often he did that exact thing.

"Tch, I'll take care of things then," she said before walking straight towards the fighting pair.

Once right next to them, she crossed her arms in front of her to create an X before quickly slashing them downwards. Her arms were now glowing white as she lifted up her right hand to draw a circle in the air with two vertical tangent lines on either side of it.

"Snow Strike!" she shouted as she tapped the glowing symbol with her left hand. Instantly, rockets of snow pelted directly down on Titan and Diesel, and before long, they were both buried in the cold, heavy substance.

"What the hell, snowflake?!" Diesel said.

"Shut it, grease pit!" she retorted, "You shouldn't be fighting in the bar anyways. You remember the last time you two fought in here? Angelo gave you the wrong drinks on purpose for breaking three tables for three weeks!"

The group silently looked over at the bar to see the tall, handsome bartender smiling devilishly and waving in their direction.

'If the devil were a bartender…' was the resounding thought of the room.

"Fine," Diesel huffed as he dug himself out of the snow pile. He shook off the white powder before turning on Titan, who was still buried, "You and Tejil are banned from driving any of my babies!"

"Your bab-"

"Yes, my babies!" Diesel shouted, cutting Titan off, "If you so much as leave a fingerprint on any of them, you'll have a lot more to worry about than some wicked bartender!"

"Fine, whatever," Titan grumbled in return, getting more snow on top of his head as Kokou dove into the empty pile that Diesel had left behind.

"And you!" Diesel rounded on the snow woman, "You don't have any damn room to lecture me about fighting! Angelo wouldn't even serve you a drink for a month after your last brawl in here! So, can it!"

"This is who I have to go hunting down Quinn and the others with? I could just go on my own, you know," she said, rounding on Maddox with a hand on her hip.

Maddox wiped a hand down his face, 'It's like dealing with nine-year-olds every day,' he thought, "Yes…don't you two normally get along?"

Diesel and the woman stared each other up and down as if sizing each other up. They both looked back at Maddox with a shrug, "Sometimes."

"Lord, help me," he muttered under his breath, "Okay look, I need someone to go check on Quinn, Zander, and Walker. They took a fairly simple mission of clearing out a nest of cliff cats a few days ago, but they should have been back by yesterday at the latest. I want to make sure nothing's happened to them."

Both Diesel and the woman knew he was worried about the team being out in the mountains after the news of the murders. He would not usually send people out after a team until a few days went by after they should have been back. Maddox knew that some missions could take a couple days longer than intended, but it was easy to see the man was on edge about leaving them on their own for too long.

"Ink and I can go check on them ourselves. I don't need _Andromeda_ tagging along."

The woman landed a swift jab into the back of Diesel's knee, instantly sending the man crashing to the ground.

'I don't know how I'm not on some sort of blood pressure medication,' Maddox thought, "You're both going. You and _Andy_ ," he said, looking over at Diesel, who was moving to stand up, "I want to make sure there's someone there to back you up and you're the best suited for this. You both know the other three quite well and you work well together…for the most part anyways. Ink should be enough to balance you two out."

Diesel and Andy stared each other down again before giving small nods to each other.

"So where in the mountains exactly were they headed?"

 **. : + : .**

Three heavily panting people ran along the skinny ledge of the mountain side. A blur of red, green, and white flew around a corner, coming to a sliding stop out on an open ledge. They tried to listen for any sign of movement, but it was hard to hear anything over their heavy breathing.

"Why the hell did you come in screaming at us?!" a young woman shouted, turning on the short man being carried by one of her partners, being tucked under one arm. She pointed a sharpened sai prong at the man, her anger getting the better of her.

"Quinn, that's our employer," the blonde man holding the smaller man said with a nervous smile.

"She's right though, Walker," another man said, a redhead with a faded black beanie atop his head, "We were doing just fine until he came busting in."

"You can't touch the cliff cat chicks," the man huffed, not at all feeling shamed that Walker was carrying him, "The mother won't want to take care of them if you do."

"We should just leave you here. Maybe you can deal with all the damn animals chasing us with those warm fuzzies of yours!" Quinn snapped, placing her sai back into the its carrier at her hips. She flipped her loosely braided auburn hair back over her shoulder as she crossed her arms in front of her.

"Zander," Walker said, looking over at the redhead, "We shouldn't stay standing still for too long."

Before Zander could open his mouth to agree with him, screeching and loud thumping interrupted him. The group looked all around them to see the three animals they had just been running from coming for them.

A massive Wintergreen ram was charging towards them on the path they had just come from. Its dark green wool made it look quite beautiful, but its gnarly curled horns and huge size that stood above even Walker, who was over six feet, quickly tore that beauty apart as it rushed at them.

Above them a mountain wyvern was scaling the mountainside to reach them, its dark gray skin making it hard to see against the stone and its sharp teeth and claws looking deadly.

And in the sky was the mother cliff cat. She was quite large and had the odd, yet well put together appearance of a mountain lion and pterodactyl. Its body was long and lithe and covered in dirty sand colored fur. Leathery gray wings folded out from its back while a long, sharp beak took up most of its face. Its yellow cat eyes were gleaming in the sun while its long cat tail swished in the air.

"And that's our cue!" Walker said, taking off down the skinny trail in front of them, Quinn and Zander following behind him.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Quinn said, having to slide under a swipe from the wyvern, "Zander! Take these things out with a Point-Blank Shot!"

"You can't!" the man under Walker's arm shouted, "You might hurt the cliff cat, which is protected by the Fioran government! They're going extinct!"

"Yeah, well, we're gonna be extinct if we don't do something soon!" Zander said as a sword appeared in his hand. It had a steel blade with an ornate guard and a hilt that was wrapped in a burgundy cloth, "Load!" he said, a magic image of a gun trigger appearing on the handle while thirty ticks appeared along the hilt.

"No!" the man shouted upon seeing the sword.

"You two deal with the ram and the wyvern. I'll deal with mama bird!" Quinn said.

"Got it!" both men replied.

Quinn looked upwards at the cliff cat while Walker turned his attention towards the wyvern that had scurried across the mountainside to move in front of him, squeezing down on the brass knuckle covering his free hand. Zander turned on his heel, coming face to face with the charging ram.

"Wind Glider!"

"Heavy Weight!"

"Point-Blank Shot!"

And chaos ignited.

* * *

 **A/N:** And there we are! Hope you enjoyed!

 **Credits**

 **Diesel Evander and Ink - MyDearWatson**

 **Kokou Enyo – Cat the Alien**

 **Andromeda 'Andy' Kato Fox – musicaldreams89**

 **Quinn Lohr – MyDearWatson**

 **Walker Stokes – Joshua1277**

 **Zander Ealdwine – Dreadburner94**

So I know short chapter is short and there were a number of characters introduced, but some times that just happens. The last scene along with the characters will be expanded on much more next chapter that way it's not another load of characters being introduced. I don't want to drown you in characters so much so that you won't remember who has been introduced. Mostly I needed to get this chapter completed and so I decided to keep it a bit shorter. Still though, I had fun with it and enjoyed writing all these characters again and introducing a new one! CHA!

Thank you all again for your wonderful reviews, PMs, favorites, and follows! They all made me smile and made my day! So thank you!

I just realized that I should have put a disclaimer about spoilers for FT in the first chapter, but oh well. I was going on the assumption that most people were caught up on everything.

I don't know if Laxus and Bacchus would take over their guilds as guild masters, but that was my guess. They seem like the appropriate picks for those positions, so I went with them.

Also just as a note…I am not reading the 100 Year Mission story, but I do know that there are such things as 4th and 5th generation dragon slayers, and just no. None of those will be in this story and I will not be including that story line in this story. I suppose you could say that it's AU that way, but I'm not reading it and I don't want any other slayer types showing up in the story if anyone asks about it. Mostly that was me just venting about dragon eaters…come on, seriously?

Anyways…

Song Inspiration: Kiss With a Fist by Florence and The Machine

I don't have much else to say this time around.

See you all in a week!

Yours Truly,

MyDearWatson


	4. Shoot at the Devil

**A/N:** Huzzah! A new chapter!

I don't own Fairy Tail!

Please enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Shoot at the Devil**

 **February 7, X803**

After giving out the quick instructions, Quinn jumped off the side of the mountain as hard as she could.

"Wind Glider!"

She only fell a few feet before her feet thumped down onto something hard, a solid board of air appearing under her black boots. She pulled the dark green scarf wrapped around her neck up over her nose before taking off up high in the air after the cliff cat.

She vaguely heard the call of their employer, "Don't hurt it!"

She was not stupid, but she also was not about to let her teammates be sitting ducks for the creature. She narrowed her hazel eyes at the cliff cat as she made a beeline for it. She cut it close, running the bottom of the board up along its long beak to ensure that its attention would be on her. She glanced behind her to see the cliff cat turning to follow her.

'Good,' she thought, 'I can keep mama bird busy while the other two finish with the wyvern and ram. Hopefully they can handle that without me.'

Walker had flung his free arm back just as the mountain wyvern screeched and lunged for him.

"Heavy Weight!"

The brass knuckle on his fist became much heavier, giving the blonde a much deadlier punch. The wyvern was straightforward in its attack and did not swerve or twist as it made its way for Walker. This made his job much easier as he slammed his heavy fist into its face. The crunching of bone was heard, and Walker even saw a few of its sharp teeth go flying. It screeched again and jumped backwards, tumbling down the side of the mountain.

Though, Walker knew that the creature would not stay down for long. He looked around the small area he stood on and it seemed luck was on his side. There was a crack in the side of the mountain that was just big enough for one, small person.

"Okay, in you go," Walker said with a smile, shoving the man under his arm into the wedge of an opening. He made sure he was snuggly tight, so he would not go flying off the mountain or get in his or Zander's way, "Stay there for now."

"Does it look like I'm going anywhere?" the man asked with an annoyed look as he wriggled around, but with no luck on moving out of that spot.

"You wouldn't be in this situation if you had just stayed at the ranger station like we told you to," Walker said, his smile still in place, but annoyance clearly evident in his voice.

The screech of the wyvern below them drowned out whatever the man was trying to say to Walker. He turned away from the man to finish dealing with the creature.

Zander swung his sword down towards the head of the charging ram.

"Point-Blank Shot!"

He pulled the trigger now on his blade, two of the thirty ticks along it disappearing as simple magic energy exploded directly on the ram's head. The large animal reared back as it shook its head. Smoke covered its face and horns momentarily, causing it to stand stalk still.

For a moment, Zander thought he might have lucked out and hit the right spot to instantly stop the ram, but a low bleat from the animal told him that it was not beaten yet. A pair of lighter, almost cute, bleats followed the first one.

Zander cocked an eyebrow, looking up at the ram's back when the smoke cleared.

"Dammit!" he cursed upon seeing two lambs with light green wool covering their bodies.

"Don't hurt the babies!" their employer shouted once he saw them.

Zander glared back at the man, "You hired us to help with the cliff cats not rams. These things are everywhere, and we eat them abundantly in Wintergreen."

"But the babies!"

"What do you think lamb sticks are?!" Zander snapped. While he did not hate animals, Wintergreen rams were literally everywhere and no one in town ever felt bad about taking a few out, "And those babies are demon fluffs!"

The redhead turned back to face the ram without waiting for the man's response. When he was facing the animal again, the two babies were in front of him. The trio stared each other down for a long moment before the babies started to inch towards him with their deceptively cute bleating, their square eyes locked onto his burgundy peacoat.

"I don't think so!" he shouted as he kicked at one of them. His brown boot made contact with it, sending it flying backwards with a panicked bleat. The large ram caught it by its wool in its teeth, throwing it onto its back.

The other baby made a hard snap for Zander's coat, wanting nothing more than to gorge on it. Luckily, Zander was quick enough to pull away from it before kicking it and sending it back towards the big ram as well.

Once both babies were on its back again, the ram snorted angrily at the redhead before bending its head down to charge at him again.

Zander let out a, "Tch," as he lifted his sword to point at the ram again. Though, instead of aiming for its horned head this time, he aimed for the right leg, "Artillery Strike!" he shouted as he pulled the trigger. Five more ticks disappeared as a highly explosive shot of magic flew out from the sword. He repeated the same attack at the ram's left leg. The shots made contact, bringing down the ram instantly; but like Walker had known with the wyvern, Zander knew it was not going to be enough to keep the ram down.

Zander was torn from looking at the ram when he heard a loud screech. He looked behind him to see Walker having a hard time dealing with the wyvern. The wyvern had come to tower over the blonde, using its wings and whip-like tail to keep Walker at bay. He was able to dodge the wyvern, but he could not get in to get another hit on it like he had that first time.

While Zander had been looking away, the ram and its babies made their move. Suddenly, two little fluffs of green were standing in front of Zander while he felt a snort of hot air above his head. He glanced behind him to see the ram right at his back.

"Shit," he said as the lambs moved to take a chomp out of his coat again. He instinctively kicked at them, which caused another snort from above him and he could feel the ram bending down to knock him away with its horns.

Walker tried to move to help Zander, but as soon as he looked away from the wyvern, it made a swipe with its claws, "Dammit, where is Quinn?"

"She's still dealing with the cliff cat," Zander answered, "You want that here to try and kill us too?"

Walker made a face at his comment, knowing they would have to figure out how to get out of the mess they were in without Quinn.

Though, the answer to their problem soon came from above them.

"Oil Dragon's Roar!

"Frostbite!"

A wave of thick black oil rained down onto the wyvern, causing it to momentarily stop its attack on Walker. It stood still in surprise while its eyes blinked through the oil.

Above the ram, five thin white blasts of magic shot down at it. As soon as the blasts hit the ram and the babies the were stopped in their place in frozen pain.

Walker and Zander exchanged looks, knowing exactly what to do now. Zander kicked the lambs out of the way, sending them off the mountain. Walker and Zander smirked and high-fived each other as they passed one another.

Zander placed his sword into its holster on his back while he called forth another sword from his re-quip space, "Flamberge!" In his left hand appeared a simple, double-edged steel sword with a fire lacrima placed in it just above the hilt. A red cloth was wrapped around the handle as well, "Load," he said as he lifted the sword to point at the wyvern. As soon as the ticks appeared, he shot off another Artillery Strike, causing the wyvern to be blasted off the mountain in a fiery explosion.

Walker looked at the stunned ram across from him, keeping his smirk in place, "Heavy Weight!" he shouted as he began running towards the ram. He took his amplified fist and slammed it directly between its horns. Another crunch of bones was heard before the ram was flung off the mountainside in a fit of bleats, the sound echoing across the mountains.

"Hell yeah!" both men said as they turned to high-five each other again. They then looked up to see Diesel, Ink, and Andy staring down at them from the ledge just above them.

"You're welcome," Andy said with a cock of her hips.

"We've been looking for you idiots for hours," Diesel said, "Why weren't you back at the nest that we saw on the way here?"

Walker took that moment to pull their employer out of the mountainside, "Because of this fool," he said, lifting the man up to show them, "He started an attack between the mama cliff cat, a mountain wyvern, and a Wintergreen ram because he freaked out on us."

The man began to protest, but Andy quickly cut him off.

"And where is Quinn?"

Zander and Walker pointed up, causing everyone to look up. There they saw Quinn flying around with the cliff cat.

"Is she…is she fucking doing what I think she's fucking doing?!" Diesel said, his eye twitching in annoyance.

Above them, Quinn had pulled out her phone tablet, maneuvering her wind glider and the cliff cat where she wanted them. When she felt like everything was in place, she pulled down the scarf away from her face and gave the biggest, cheesiest smile before taking a picture with the cliff cat right behind her.

"Got it!" she said as she pulled the scarf back up and flew up above the creature before its beak could snap down on her. She began to quickly type on the screen, weaving back and forth in the air to keep the cliff cat away from her, "Let's see, #ThunderStone, #Wintergreen, #CliffCat, #TheLohrCompetition, #LoserJace. Yeah, that's good," she smirked before posting the picture.

"Seriously?! Can you not right now?!"

Quinn looked down when she heard Andy's shout, surprised to see her, Diesel, and Ink below with Zander and Walker. She gave them another cheesy grin before shoving her phone into an inside pocket of her coat.

"We have a net, right?!" she shouted down to them as she dropped in the air to dodge the cliff cat.

"Yeah," Walker answered as he looked over at the short man. The man simply sighed as he pulled out a net and handed it over. He knew at this point that nothing would get done with this mission if he did not let them handle the mama bird how they needed to, "Thanks," Walker said before waving the net up at Quinn.

She zoomed down through the air and snatched it out of his hands. It did not take her long to bait the cliff cat to where she wanted her to move and captured her in the net. She grasped the ends of the net closed in her hands as she slowly lowered the cliff cat down to the ledge that Walker and the others stood on. She kept the wiggling creature just above the ledge so their employer could administer the tranquillizer to it. The tranquillizer worked fast, and soon Quinn was standing on solid ground again.

"That picture better win the competition for the week, Quinnie," Zander said, eyeing her with a smirk.

"Don't call me that!" she snapped before a smile settled on her face, "I already know Jace is gonna lose this week. His best picture was him riding on top of a train. Psh, like we haven't already seen or done that ourselves."

"I think it's about time your brother loses anyways," Walker chimed in, "He's won the last three weeks, right?"

"Last week was a fluke! That idiot, Rey, had to help him win it!"

The two men left the subject alone after that, knowing better than to poke at that wound.

"So why are you three out here?" Zander asked, looking up at the trio above them.

"Maddox sent us out here to look for you when you didn't come back yesterday. What was taking you so long to move some cliff cats?" Diesel asked.

"Our employer here made us plan for days on how we were going to move the nest and then he insisted on following us up into the mountains instead of staying in the ranger station like we told him to. Slowed us down quite a bit," Walker explained.

"I told you!" the man began, "You can't touch the babies!"

"Well there is no way we're moving those eggs without touching them," Quinn said with a huff.

"We can work something out," Andy said, eyeing the short man, "I'm sure that wearing gloves will be sufficient enough to move them, yes? And then we can carry them by net as well."

The man opened his mouth to protest her plan, thinking that rolling the eggs into a netting would shake them around too much, but Quinn cut him off.

"That's what we were gonna do, but then he flipped his shit over moving them too much!"

Andy's silver eyes pierced the man with such fierceness that he could no longer even open his mouth to protest, "Then that is what we're doing. This mission should have been done already and you should have been home yesterday."

"Then let's get a move on," Diesel said as he began helping the group up onto the ledge that he stood on.

 **. : + : .**

Deep within the Worth Woodsea lay the ancient city that Oracion Seis had once used as their home base. Now, the remnants of the dark guild had become part of the ruins of the city. It was within a still standing temple within this city that two men stood, looking within a pool filled with black liquid.

One man was dressed in a dark blue cloak and bandages all over his body, a single silver eye showing.

The other man stood straight and proper, wearing fitted and pressed dress clothes, everything looking immaculate and having him stand out compared to the ruins around him.

But both men were equally intense in appearance and the aura they carried.

"The Reaper did not want this body either, master," the immaculate man stated.

"Then we must keep searching. You understand the Nightmares better than anyone other than myself and I do not have time to look for the proper body for it."

"It is such a shame that the bodies it uses deteriorate over time."

"Yes, it is," the silver-eyed man agreed, "But if you find the right body, it should last it a hundred years at least."

"True enough."

The silver eye watched the other man for a long moment, seeing the gears moving quickly in his brain, "You are thinking you have an idea for the right body?"

"Possibly," he answered, "I had hoped not to have to rely on rumors or even deal with an overly strong mage, but with the past five bodies barely lasting three days for the Reaper, I feel I must go with my instincts."

"And who is it that you have in mind?"

"The Bone Witch."

The silver eye looked surprised for a brief moment before it seemed to lift into a smirk, "I see."

"This will interfere with Thunder Stone quite early and I am not sure you want that, master."

"But you think that body will work well?"

"I believe it will. The Bone Witch seems rather fitting, no?"

As soon as the immaculate man asked that, a skeletal hand burst out of the black liquid. The liquid dripped off the hand in thick glops before the bone white fingers grabbed onto the edge of the pool. The thick liquid wrapped itself around the hand, pulling it back down underneath the surface. Soon the blackness of the pool stilled, bringing an eerie silence with it.

"It is quite fitting," the cloaked man said, "You have my permission to go after her."

"Thank you, master."

"I am certain that this body will be the one you have been searching for, Jean Wright."

* * *

 **A/N:** And there we are! I hope you enjoyed it!

 **Credits**

 **Jean Wright – Dreadburner94**

Yas! Another chapter done! I'm so excited about where things are already going! That last scene! GAH! Just wait!

Anyways, thank you all for your wonderful reviews and PMs! And for following and favoriting the story! You are all so awesome!

I know there are a few PMs that were sent in recently that I need to get to, so don't think I haven't seen them! I should be getting to those tomorrow!

Song Inspiration: Shoot at the Devil by SWANK

That should be it for now.

Until next week!

Yours Truly,

MyDearWatson


	5. The Man

**A/N:** Here's the new chapter!

I don't own Fairy Tail!

Please enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 5: The Man**

 **February 9, X803**

It was a rather cold morning when a teenage boy walked into Thunder Stone. He had to tug at the door a bit to break the frost that had settled over the front doors. He pulled the brown cloak around him a little tighter as a cold wind rushed in after him. He quickly shut the door behind him, successfully cutting off the wind and snow he had been walking in for quite a while. He took a deep breath, slowly letting it out as he leaned up against the closed doors.

"A customer at this hour."

The teen tensed up upon hearing a stern voice to his right. He looked over to see a strict looking man staring down at a silver pocket watch.

"You are too early. We do not start taking customers until nine on the dot. You are five minutes early," he said, snapping the watch shut and placing it into his trouser pocket. He lifted his black-gloved hand to push black rectangle glasses up the bridge of his nose with his middle finger.

"I…uh…I came here because I…uh…" the teen stuttered, suddenly nervous in front of the intense man.

"If you are going to show up early, you should have enough manners to come prepared."

The young boy was intimidated even more by the perfectly slicked back silver hair, the deep gray eyes, and the pristine green blazer and tie; but what had gotten to him the most was the large scar on the left side of his face that reached from his forehead down to his chin, traveling over his left eye.

'Is this guy really a mage here?' the boy thought, not having expected such an intense meeting when he had arrived at the guild.

"Oda, are you scaring customers again?"

A sweet, melodic voice interrupted the stare down between the boy and the man. They both looked over and the boy's mouth dropped open when his eyes landed on the beauty in front of him. Deep emerald eyes seemed to smile at the duo playfully while a simple soft smile graced her lips. Velvet black hair cascaded down around her shoulders, looking just as soft as the dark gray sweater she wore.

"Milada," the older man, known as Oda now to the boy, nodded politely to her, "This young man showed up five minutes early and without a proper reason. If one is to be somewhere early, it means that they have already prepared for the thing they are early for."

When Oda turned to look back at the boy again, it was then that the teen saw a red guild mark on his right cheek, indicating that he truly was a mage of the guild.

'Where did I end up?' the boy thought.

Milada laughed lightly at Oda's explanation, "I'm sure this young man has been traveling for some time to get here and I'm sure it wasn't his intention to show up early without proper preparations. Don't you think you should cut him some slack and serve him a cup of hot coffee instead?"

Oda looked in between the smiling Milada and the shivering teen, deciding that Milada was right, "Yes, all right."

Oda finally moved away from the teen and over to the small coffee area that was in front of one of the windows, just before the cubicles began.

"Don't mind him," Milada said, smiling at the boy, "He's just a stickler for rules is all. Please come in and have a seat," she motioned towards a puffy, dark brown couch instead of one of the cubicles like he thought she would. He didn't argue though. He was cold and tired, and the couch look very inviting. Once he took his seat, easily letting out another relieved breath and sinking into it, she sat across from him in a plush brown chair that matched the couch, "Now then, how can Thunder Stone be of help to you?"

"I wanted to request the help of your guild," he said, pulling his hat off and turning it in his hand nervously.

Milada nodded at him, "Let's start with your name and where you're from."

"My name is Cline Downey and I'm from Larkspur Village, just outside of the Worth Woodsea."

"That is quite a way to come. There must have been some closer guilds to travel to, especially during winter."

"Yes, ma'am," he agreed, "But…well…it's just that the few guilds I passed were small and I don't think they could handle what I want to ask of you. No offense to them though," he said quickly, "I'm sure they're fine guilds and all, but…I…I just want to make sure everything can be taken care of properly. I'm really worried, and I just want some experienced hands helping me. And I-"

He was soon cut off from his rambling when a white mug and saucer were presented to his face. Steam wafted out of the mug, bringing the comforting smell of coffee with it.

"Drink," Oda ordered, "Maybe then you will not be so frazzled in your explanation."

Cline thanked him as he took the mug from him and blew across the top of it a few times. He then took a large gulp of the hot liquid, the teen cringing when the taste hit his tongue.

"It is black," Oda informed, "I do not like sweet things and coffee is best when you can actually taste it instead of the sugar and cream. You are welcome."

Cline looked at the man, seeing that he was genuine in his explanation and that he had not intentionally given him black coffee to watch him suffer through drinking it. Cline made it through a few more swallows before setting the mug back down on the saucer that now sat on the coffee table in front of him. When he sat back into the couch, he found himself much more relaxed and ready to explain himself properly.

Cline saw that Oda was now in a chair next to Milada, waiting for his explanation.

"My father, he disappeared. It was a couple of weeks ago," he started, his words finally starting to sound solid and making sense, "The Worth Woodsea, it's always been a little creepy living next to it, but you get used to it over time. Nothing bad has happened to our village, not until about a month or so ago. That's when the first person disappeared.

"People can get lost in the forest sometimes, but they always come back. The first person was the baker's son. He'd gone into the Woodsea like always, foraging for winterberries that grew in the forest to use in his father's bakery. He's gotten lost before in the forest, so no one thought of it until the second day he had been gone. A search party went into the forest, but they found nothing. It was like he just vanished.

"Then a woman getting firewood went missing after him and then a small child playing in the forest after her. My father went into the forest after that to search for them, but he hasn't come back. Almost a week ago, the mayor's son went into the forest to find all the missing people, but I highly doubt he's come back. I left the day after he went into the forest to find help."

"It seems strange that we have not heard anything about these disappearances," Oda said, looking over at Milada, "I know the nine murders have been in the news, so why has something like this not been shared?"

Milada nodded in agreement, "And why have you come so far for help?" she asked, looking back at Cline, "Why not have a higher up from your village contact the proper authorities?"

"Our village is scared and I believe that if they agree to reach out to people like the Rune Knights or a guild it would make everything more real…that the people who have disappeared are gone for good," he answered, looking at the half empty coffee mug, "And our mayor…he's got a lot of pride and our town is a tourist stop. He thinks that if word gets out that people are disappearing that people will stop coming to the village and we'll lose a large chunk of our income."

"I see," Milada said, "And yet, here you are."

"Our town needs help and I need to know what happened to my father, even if that means he's…" but Cline was unable to finish the sentence, "Are you able to help me? I can pay you as well. I brought my savings from the past two years," he said, pulling out a small bag of jewels and setting it on the table in front of him.

Milada and Oda shared a glance before she slid the jewels back towards Cline. The teen looked defeated for a moment until Milada began to speak.

"We can talk about prices at a later time. First, I'd like to sit with you longer to hear more about your town and any possible rumors you have heard about the disappearances of these people. The more information I have, the better."

"So, Thunder Stone will take the job?"

"I'll personally see to the mission myself."

"Milada," Oda began, "We do not even know the level of this mission yet or what we are dealing with exactly. How can you say yes to the mission without even knowing what you are getting into?"

"Relax," Milada waved him off, "Who better to take on a mysterious mission than an S-Class mage? If it ends up being something powerful, I should be able to handle it. Or at least keep it at bay until I can call for backup. And I'm thinking about taking another mage with me as well. That should be enough to start with."

Oda watched her for a moment before giving in with a sigh, "All right."

"Then we should get heading back to Larkspur!" Cline said, moving to slide off the couch.

"Now wait a moment," Milada said with a light laugh, "We still have some things to discuss before we go, and you could do with some food, a hot bath, and some sleep. We'll take some time for you to rest and prepare for the mission and head out in a day or two."

Cline looked hesitant, wanting to take care of what was going on his village sooner rather than later, but what she had said made sense. He eventually relaxed back into the couch and agreed to her conditions. His village would have to wait a few extra days.

 **. : + : .**

A low, crooning voice filled The Thunderdome while mages and citizens of Wintergreen alike sat around the bar drinking or eating dinner. The woman filling the room with the hypnotic singing was a usual, being a regular citizen of the town, but was well liked as a singer at the guild.

At one of the booths sat a rather handsome man. His black hair was messy, but fashionably so, while his dark blue eyes could break down even the toughest of women into a puddle of goo. Those same eyes were currently scanning over the official ledger for the guild, one hand flipping through pages while the other held a lit cigarette.

He took a puff of the cigarette as his eyes landed on a recent purchase of a pallet of oil, "How did he even get that one passed me?" he said, blowing out the cigarette smoke. While he was not pleased that he had used the guild's credit card to purchase the oil, he did give Diesel credit for putting the purchase in the ledger for him. Most of the guild often forgot to put any purchases in it. They were lucky he had a sharp eye for such things.

"Tada."

He looked up when a voice said his name. His usual smirk appeared when Oda sat down in the booth with him, pushing over a drink towards him.

"Evening," Tada nodded at him, flicking his cigarette against the black ashtray next to him before picking the drink up. His displeasure with Diesel quickly disappeared when Iceberg's White Vodka hit his tongue, "You always seem to know what I want."

"I think that is more of Angelo's area of expertise," Oda said as he took a drink of his own Wintergreen Ale.

Tada looked towards the bar to see Angelo nodding towards him with a smile. Tada returned the gesture before taking another sip of the drink. He set it down and looked back at the ledger.

"Everything looking all right?"

"For the most part, yes," Tada said, putting his initial next to the last purchase before closing the ledger, "A few odd purchases, but that is to be expected with our guild."

"I am still surprised that you took the job as our accountant. Does it not seem mundane?"

"Not at all. It's something I can complete rather quickly and easily, and I get a small payment out of it from Maddox. It all works out nicely."

"Oda, I'm glad you're here," Quinn said, having heard him speaking with Tada from the booth over that she had been sharing with her team.

She handed him a thick stack of papers that were clipped together. Across the top page of the papers, there were marks made in green and red along with comments along the sides of it. Oda flipped through the stack quickly to see the rest of the pages matched the first one.

"This chapter was pretty good. I really like where you're going with the main character," she said.

"I am glad to hear that," he said with small smile.

"As usual, I marked and wrote things in green that I liked or that shouldn't change. The things in red are what I didn't like or that I thought could be changed."

"Thank you for putting in so much effort into reading the chapters for me. I appreciate the feedback."

"I like doing it. And it's a great way for me to see your work ahead of time," she said with a smile, "The first three books in your Blazing Tales series were so good!"

"Well, I will be sure to read over your notes carefully. Thank you again."

"Yeah, just let me know when you have the next chapter ready."

"Having your chapters edited, are we? I have a real, proper editor that could do that for you Odayaka."

Both Oda's and Quinn's face fell upon hearing the voice behind them. Tada simply continued smirking, not letting the appearance of their fellow guildmate affect him.

They all looked across from them to see the arrogant face of Gilbert Melville smiling back at them. He approached them with a confident swagger, causing Quinn's eye to twitch in annoyance.

"I keep telling you to let me handle your editing process, Odayaka."

"And I continue telling you that I have managed just fine this long on my own, Gilbert."

"But you are letting someone without an editor's eye or training to give you advice. She does not even write herself. I shudder to think how well your new book will fair, especially against your last three works that have done so well."

Without hesitation, Quinn make a quick jab into Gilbert's stomach. He did not lurch over or make any noise to indicate the pain he was in. Though, he went silent, his lips pursing to keep in the cry of pain he wanted to let out, and he leaned onto the table with one hand heavily, standing awkwardly in an attempt to play off the punch like it was no big deal.

Quinn huffed in satisfaction as she turned back to Oda, "Like I said, let me know when you have another chapter," she said before walking back to her booth.

Once she was out of sight, Gilbert let out a wheeze as he hunched over with a hand on his stomach.

"You deserved that," Oda said simply as he set aside the stack of papers and took a drink of his ale.

Gilbert wheezed for a moment longer before straightening himself out. Soon enough, his arrogance was back on his face, "You should still let me hook you up with an editor. Your series would go nationwide!"

"I am doing just fine, thank you."

"Look, I will reach out to one and then you two can meet and talk, and I am certain you will change your mind. I will let you know when I have one in town."

Oda only gave him a flat stare in reply.

Gilbert's eyes shifted over to Tada, both men staring each other down with eerily similar smirks.

"Tada, how are you this evening?"

"I'm marvelous. How are you, Gil?"

Gilbert twitched in annoyance when Tada used the shortened version of his name, "I must still insist that you call me Gilbert."

"Ah, I do apologize. It must have slipped my mind."

Gilbert eyed him for a moment longer, but Tada's smirk did not waver. He then mustered up a new smile, "How about a game of chess then?"

"You caught me on a bad day. I have already played several games of chess with Azielle and I'm rather worn out by the game today."

"I see," Gilbert said, "You must have gotten tired of winning against the girl. I cannot imagine having to take it easy on someone so out of your league."

Tada leaned forward with that smirk of his in place, "Have you ever played against Azielle?"

"No, I would leave the poor girl crying if I did!"

Tada leaned back into his seat, taking another puff off his cigarette. He let the smoke out in a slow, lazy stream, "You let me know when you do, _Gil_."

Both Tada and Oda could visibly see Gilbert twitch upon hearing the nickname.

"Oh, my bad. Must have slipped my mind again."

The two men stared each other down again before Gilbert stood with renewed confidence. He looked back over at Oda, "I will let you know when that editor is in town," he said before he set off towards the bar in the same swagger he had approached them with.

Oda glanced over at Tada just as the man took the last puff of his cigarette, "So how many games did you lose to Azielle this time?"

Another stream of smoke was released as Tada smashed the butt in the ashtray, his smirk ever so slightly widening, "Eleven out of twenty."

* * *

 **A/N:** And there we are! I hope you enjoyed it!

 **Credits**

 **Odayaka 'Oda' Arashi – alucard deathsinger**

 **Tada Tadoa – Cat the Alien**

 **Gilbert Melville – Mary Allen**

I was so excited about this chapter since I got to introduce three characters I've been so excited about writing! Many of you will remember Tada from the original Thunder Stone, but I still love writing his character so much! Hopefully he came off just as well as he used to! And the other two were just so great when I read them and I hope they turned out really well too!

Thank you all for reading and for the reviews! They were wonderful as always! You all continue to be such awesome people!

Song Inspiration: The Man by The Killers

I really don't have much else this time.

I should have the next chapter up on Thursday this time, so be on the look out!

Yours Truly,

MyDearWatson


	6. Put Your Money on Me

**A/N:** Yas! A new chapter!

I don't own Fairy Tail!

Please enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Put Your Money on Me**

 **February 10, X803**

An alternative song began playing in a dimly lit room, hazy green curtains hanging over the large circular dorm room window cutting down on the amount of light coming through it. A mound of green and gray sheets and blankets slowly began to move. A hand snaked out of them, patting up and down along the bed until it smacked against the thing making noise.

Quinn's head popped out of the blankets to stare down at the silver laptop playing the music she used to indicate that someone was calling her via facetime. She yawned as she pushed the blankets down to her waist and opened the laptop. Her eye twitched upon seeing the stupid, smiling face flashing at her. Deciding it was better to answer now rather than let it ring for the next three hours, she clicked the button to connect them.

"What do you want, Laz?" she grumbled, pushing her messy hair out of her face.

Dark gray eyes stared back at her in disbelief, "You seriously got a picture with a cliff cat?!"

Quinn was certain that if the platinum blonde was in front of her, she would have punched him, "Why are you shouting? Yes, I took a picture with one. You saw it, right?"

"Yeah, but you could have photoshopped it!"

"Stop yelling!" she snapped, huffing in satisfaction when he went silent, "Why would I photoshop that picture? And I swear if you say to beat Jace in our competition I will come down to Rainbow Serpent and punch you."

There was nothing but silence for an answer.

"You asshole!" she shouted, reaching to end the call.

"Wait! I'm sorry! It's just that it seemed unbelievable. Those things can be real nasty."

"Yeah, well it was real. Just as real as the ram and wyvern we had to fight at the same time with it."

"We? Who'd you go on a mission with? Was it those two idiots you always hang around with?"

"Like you have room to talk," she said with an eye roll before moving into a stretch.

"Just let me come up there and meet them already! I'll see just how competent they are to be teammates with you!"

"What did I say about yelling!"

"What do you think you're do-"

Quinn quirked an eyebrow when he stopped talking, "Laz?"

A dusting of red suddenly appeared on his cheeks before he looked upwards, "You could at least be decent when I call."

Quinn looked down to see that one of her tank top straps had fallen off her shoulders, but all that could be seen was bare shoulder. Her eye twitched again, "Oh, grow the hell up! It's your fault for calling me at…" she looked down at the clock on her computer, her eyes going wide in anger, "AT EIGHT IN THE FUCKING MORNING! GOODBYE, LAZARUS!"

She saw him cringe before she shut her laptop. She was certain that he would not call her for the next few days at least. She had used his full name, and she only did that when she was really pissed off at him.

"He really should have known better than to call me so damn early," she said with a huff before turning to her window and throwing open the curtains. It was doubtful that she was going back to sleep now.

The wintery scene before her made her mood lift slightly. She moved to sit in the window. She had covered the large carved out circle in pillows and blankets, creating a comfortable outlet for her to sit and relax in.

Everything outside the window was covered in glistening snow. The roads, the town, everything. While she did admit to enjoying the autumn months more, winter had that picturesque vibe to it, especially in Wintergreen. Her hometown of Crocus had winter, but it was nothing like what laid before her now, and it often brought out the child in her and had her staring at it in awe.

With that thought in mind, Quinn turned away from the window, deciding to get ready for the day. Angelo would be awake by now to serve the members of the guild breakfast and she figured a cold, snowy morning deserved a nice, hot breakfast.

After quickly getting ready, she stopped by one of her bookshelves that covered her room. She scanned over the titles for a moment before pulling out one by her favorite author – Kameron Parker. It was the first in his Mardius the Mage Knight series, Quinn feeling like it was about time she re-read that series again.

She made her way out of her room after that. Upon entering the dorm hallway, she was surprised to see another face staring back at her. Outside the door next to her room stood Zander, his dark blue eyes giving her an unamused stare.

"What's with that look? And why are you up so early?"

"Oh, I don't know," he grumbled, "Something about it being eight in the morning and goodbye Lazarus."

Quinn laughed nervously, "Ah, so you heard that?"

"Pretty sure the whole floor heard it."

"Why not just go back to sleep?"

"Kinda hard to do when it jolts you awake and causes you to fall out of bed."

Quinn only laughed nervously again, "Well, why don't you join me for breakfast?"

"You paying?"

Quinn felt her eye twitch again. She had to wonder how she traded one idiot for another when she left home to join Thunder Stone. It was more like five other idiots if she counted her whole team. She promptly turned on her heels and began making her way towards the elevator that sat in the middle of the guild.

Zander smirked before moving to catch up with her, "Quinnie, wait up."

"If you're trying to butter me up, you're doing a poor job of it!" she said as she smashed the button to call the elevator up to their floor.

"You're gonna get the button stuck…again."

She quickly yanked his beanie down over his eyes in response.

"Tch, can't you just punch me like everyone else?" he asked, irritated that he now had to fix his beanie back into place.

"No," she answered, now being the one smirking as she stepped into the opening elevator, "You get more irritated this way."

Zander pulled off his beanie, freeing the mop of dark red hair under it. He looked up while running a hand through his hair to slick it back just in time to see Quinn stick her tongue out at him before the elevator doors closed.

She grinned the entire way down and into the Thunderdome. As she entered the bar, her eyes landed on Walker who sat at one of the bar stools, talking with Angelo.

"Ah! Good morning, Quinn!" Angelo said with a beaming smile, "Though, I wasn't expecting you so early!"

"Yeah, well, I was woken up by an idiot," she said, taking a seat next to Walker, who smiled at her as well.

"Was it the same one you shouted at because it was eight in the morning?"

She sighed, "You heard that too?"

"Of course, the entire floor probably heard it," Walker said with a laugh before taking a large bite of the waffles that sat in front of him.

Quinn eyed the fluffy, syrup covered food before looking back up at Walker, "Did you lose another challenge against Angelo?"

"Yeah, but totally worth it! You know his food is the best!"

"Would you like to take the challenge today?" Angelo asked.

"Actually, how about a bet on that challenge?"

They all turned to see Zander standing behind them, his beanie back in perfect place. He took a seat on the other side of Quinn, nodding a quick greeting towards Walker and Angelo.

"What would this bet be?" Quinn asked.

"The person whose meal that Angelo gets right first will have to pay for both meals."

Quinn looked thoughtful for a moment before sticking her hand out to the redhead, "Deal."

He shook her hand in return before looking over at Angelo, "You ready?"

"Of course!" the bartender answered, glancing between the two.

The trio went silent while Walker ate and watched the interaction. Angelo simply smiled at the pair while they both wore concentrated looks on their faces. They had many challenges with Angelo and his mind reading abilities to pick up on a few tricks to keep his mind at bay from what they were really thinking, but it would only be a matter of time before one of them slipped and he figured out what they were wanting for breakfast.

The trio stayed that way for a few minutes before Angelo had a knowing glimmer in his eyes. They knew one of them had messed up as he turned to enter the kitchen that was attached to the bar. It was another twenty minutes before he returned with a covered platter. Quinn and Zander stared down the silver dome covering the food, each hoping it was the other's dish.

Angelo uncovered the food in a dramatic pose to reveal a steaming bowl of miso ramen with a sliced pork cutlet on top of it.

"Ha! You lose!" Quinn said, looking over at Zander with a victorious grin.

"Dammit," the redhead grumbled as he took the bowl of food.

"How do you always manage to last so long against him?" Walker asked.

"That's my secret!" Quinn answered. Honestly, she found it easy to evade Angelo's probing mind long enough to beat someone in a challenge like this. All she had to do was go through each of Kameron Parker's novels. She would name the title in her head, when it published, and go over a brief synopsis. With the author having thirty-five novels out currently, it was not hard for her to find ammo against Angelo.

"You never let these boys win," Angelo said as he set down a fresh mug of black coffee in front of her.

"Definitely not! I'm not gonna go easy on them, and especially not when there's a free meal on the line," she said, "But you do know what I want, right?"

"Biscuits and gravy coming right up!"

"Thanks for breakfast, Zander," she said, turning a cheeky smile towards him when Angelo had disappeared into the kitchen.

"Yeah, well, don't get used to it. You'll lose one of these days."

The trio settled into their usual comfortable atmosphere after that. Zander and Walker spoke about their previous mission and possible upcoming missions with Quinn commenting on things every now and then between reading and eating breakfast.

It was during this moment that Milada approached them, with Cline in tow.

"Good morning, you three. It's quite surprising to see you all up so early."

"Well someone thought it was a good idea to answer an early call from an idiot," Zander said as he pushed his empty bowl away from him and turned to face Milada. Zander had never met Lazarus, but he was already certain that he'd find the man annoying when he did.

Quinn only rolled her eyes in response as she and Walker also turned to face Milada, "Morning," she said with a soft smile, "Is there something we can help you with?"

"Yes, there is," Milada said, "This is Cline Downey and he came asking for our help. Normally, I'd take his request on my own, but it's a bit of a mystery and I thought getting some help this time around might be good."

"What's his request?" Walker asked.

"People from his village in Larkspur have been disappearing and the people in his village are afraid to ask for help, so he decided to do it for them instead. There's not much to go on, but after five people gone missing it seems like something to look into."

"We were actually just talking about some possible missions to take," Walker said.

"And it sounds like you could use some extra hands on this mission to help out," Zander added.

"Thank you, boys, but I was actually hoping to just take Quinn with me this time," Milada said, smiling at the young woman in the middle of the trio.

"Just me?" Quinn questioned, "Why just me? Wouldn't it be better to have more hands on a mission like this?"

"I used to take your brother on missions with me before he became S-Class and it was good experience for him. Plus, you and I haven't spent some time together for a while and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to fix that," Milada said, "And we are just going there to check things out and see if we can figure anything out. If it becomes too much to handle for the two of us, we can call in for back up."

"When would we leave?"

"In the next day or two. I wanted to give Cline some time to rest from his journey here and for us to get ready for the mission."

"And how much does it pay?"

"We haven't quite decided on that. He tried to give me his own money, but I feel payment should come from the mayor himself. I can explain more on that later. Do you want to come with me?"

Quinn weighed her options. If she stayed at the guild and took another mission from the board, she'd be guaranteed money, but probably not much, especially if the whole team went and they had to split the reward. If she went with Milada, there was no set price on reward, but the look in Milada's eyes told her that she'd make sure the mayor would pay up. Then there was the bonus of mystery to the mission.

"Yeah, alright, I'll go with you."

"Great! Be ready to go in a couple of days. We'll be leaving early and make sure to pack warm."

"Got it."

"Why don't we get you some breakfast now, Cline," Milada said, looking down next to her only to see a now blank spot where the teen had previously been standing.

"Yeah, the kid that was with you walked over to Samuel's table and left with him, Rey, and Raina," Walker said.

"Oh no…" Milada said, thinking of the quiet teen mixed with the boisterous Samuel.

"And isn't this about the time they usually go out for morning practice?" Zander asked.

"Dear god!" Milada said before running out of the bar.

"Poor kid, he didn't even make it past his teen years," Walker said before the trio turned back around to face the bar and Angelo.

 **. : + : .**

"Are you sure about this?" Cline asked.

He had already been made to climb a rather steep and dangerous pathway up to a large arena far above the guild and town. He had spied a safe-looking lift before their ascent, but the trio he was with had refused him to use it.

"It'll build strength and character for you to walk the same path we do!" Samuel had said.

"I'm not even a mage!"

"That makes no difference!"

After feeling like he was going to puke up his heart and lungs after the climb up to the arena, Samuel had moved him to the center of it and placed an apple in each of his hands and one on the top of his head. The apples were targets and all he had to do was stay still.

"Don't worry so much," Rey said, Cline having learned that he was the nephew of Samuel on their climb up. The young teen worried over the feral glint in Rey's dark eyes, "You just need to stand right there. No moving. No flinching."

"Even a flinch could get you a nice looking scar," Raina said, Cline also learning she was Rey's older sister. She also held a glint in her eyes that worried Cline as she lifted up her arm to show a faded scar on it, "Got mine was I was much younger than you for flinching. But it's not all bad, you know."

"Scars attract the ladies," Rey said with a smirk.

"Or the men, if that's what you prefer," Raina added with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

"I prefer not to die!"

"Is that all you're worried about?" Samuel asked, stepping in between his niece and nephew. A huge grin that did nothing to calm down Cline in the slightest was plastered across his face, "We're simply going to slice the apples in your hands and on your head. It's child's play really, but it teaches precision!"

"Just no flinching," Rey and Raina said, again with smiles that only caused Cline's heartrate to rise.

"This will be over quickly," Samuel said. His bright blue eyes changed to glowing red when he placed his black helmet on, and Cline was certain those shining orbs would be stuck in his mind long after this exercise was done with.

Cline then saw Rey and Raina preparing for an attack on the apples as well, shadow swirling around Rey while green lightning was popping along Raina's arms.

'I'm gonna die!' Cline thought as he watched the huge frame of Samuel beginning to charge towards him with his niece and nephew following closely behind him. Cline squeezed his eyes closed, waiting to be taken out by a strike of lightning or being swallowed up in shadow or being smashed to death by black armor.

"STOP!"

To Cline's surprise and relief, Milada came to his rescue, the black-haired woman standing directly in front of him. Raina easily came to a quick stop upon hearing and seeing Milada, but Samuel and Rey did not act as fast.

Samuel attempted to come to a halt, but his body continued forward by his previous momentum and magic added into that. Milada threw out a hand towards him, and what happened next was hard for Cline to explain. It was like an invisible force hit the hulking man, his body lurching forward hard. His feet came to a slow sliding stop before being forced backwards, a painful expression on Samuel's face as he was stopped and sent backwards. When it seemed certain that Samuel would no longer move forward towards Cline, Milada dropped her hand from his direction before quickly turning it on the last of the trio.

Rey was much quicker than Samuel and had easily sunk into the shadows to help him move smoothly and silently. He was a foot away from Cline and the apple he was about to slice with a shadow blade when he felt the tight aching pain in his entire body that he knew could only come from Milada. Victory had been so close as he was suddenly ripped away from it, being slung across the arena by a hidden, painful force. He landed hard on the rocky surface of the arena, rolling onto his back and letting the ache seep out of his body.

Heavy pants came from both Samuel and Rey, Raina moving to her uncle's side to make sure he was alright while Milada made her way over to Rey.

"Damn," Rey mumbled as he took the hand that Milada offered him.

"I told you to stop," she said as she tugged him to his feet.

"But did you have to be so aggressive with throwing me across the arena?"

"I did when you're trying to use my client as target practice."

"All he had to do was hold some apples and not flinch."

Milada rolled her eyes as she turned towards Samuel, "You should have known better."

"The boy seemed excited about seeing us practice," Samuel said as he rubbed his head to sooth the ache still lingering, "It only seemed right to let him join as well. It would have added character to him!"

"You mean scars," Milada said with a sigh, "You'll need to find someone else to use. Cline will be going back to Larkspur with me in one piece."

"But he's such a perfect height!"

"I will not hesitate to manipulate your skeleton all across this arena, Samuel," she said, her green eyes dark and fierce.

Samuel let out a heavy sigh upon seeing the look in her eyes, knowing he was in a losing battle, "Alright, you can take the boy back to the guild."

Milada nodded at him as she turned to Cline, who had already dropped all the apples to the ground, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, but I'd like to get out of this arena now."

"Of course," Milada smiled gently. She then turned back to Samuel, "Cline will be here for the next day or two before we head out to his village. Until then, he is not to be used in any of your practices."

"Yes, I promise!" Samuel said, "Though, have you found a mage to go with you to Larkspur? If not, I believe it would be good practice for Rey. He could use some help in listening to orders."

"What the hell, uncle?! You didn't stop either when she told you to!"

"Correction!" Samuel said, "I did try to stop. You just kept going forward. You need to work on your listening skills and knowing when to follow orders."

"I have found someone to go with me," Milada interrupted them.

She thought about her trip with Quinn and how much she was looking forward to it, but Samuel had a point. She could mentor two mages at once during the mission and Rey's shadow abilities would come in handy as well. And as a bonus, both Rey and Quinn would learn a thing or two about teamwork during the mission. While they both worked well with the teams they were on, they had a hard time working with other teams and especially each other. It was a learning experience for them that Milada could not ignore.

She let out a small sigh before continuing, "But I think you're right. Bringing Rey with us has quite a number of pros and he'd get some major experience out of it."

"Great!" Samuel said, "You heard her! Go get prepared for this mission!"

Rey rolled his eyes in response but knew better than to try and argue with Samuel. Sometimes it was just easier to comply with his orders. He looked over at Milada, "Who's the other person coming with us?"

"You'll find out when we leave," Milada answered, knowing that if she told him now that he would find a way to back out of the mission, "Just be ready in two days."

Rey eyed her for a moment longer before letting out a huff, "Fine."

Milada smiled and nodded at Samuel as she ushered Cline after a sulking Rey, all three of them making their way over to the lift that Milada had taken up to the battle arena.

Cline looked between the smiling Milada and scowling Rey, wondering if he was going to be able to survive the mismatched team that would be helping him.

* * *

 **A/N:** And there we are! I hope you all enjoyed it.

 **Credits**

 **Lazarus Ryker - MyDearWatson**

 **Rey and Raina Steele – Benthino**

I really enjoyed writing this chapter once I got myself unstuck from what I wanted to do for this chapter. Sorry it took me a bit, but at least I got it all figured out. Hopefully it won't take me so long for the next update.

Anyways, thanks for all your reviews, favorites/follows, and PMs! They made me happy as always! I really do enjoy reading them all!

Song Inspiration: Put Your Money on Me by The Struts

There's really not much else to say this time, at least I can't think of anything right now.

So then, until next chapter!

Yours Truly,

MyDearWatson


	7. Weak and Powerless

**A/N:** CHA! I'm back!

I don't own Fairy Tail!

Please enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Weak and Powerless**

 **February 10, X803**

The Van Aalsburg noble home had once been a bright and shining landmark on the outskirts of Crocus. Even by noble standards, it had been a magnificent piece of artwork. A white stone castle still standing and glittering in modern times. Flags of plum purple and lion's mane gold fluttered over the edges of the home, the insignia of an eagle across the front of them in liquid silver. Awe inspiring gardens grew lush around the castle grounds, thick colors of pink and maroon of winter flowers popping against the white stone. The stables and servants' quarters even looked lovelier than many of the homes in the middle ring of Crocus.

But everything that the Van Aalsburg home had been was washed away in a single night.

Those gleaming flags were burned and torn to shreds, singed threads of plum swaying in the morning breeze. And the breeze brought with it the scent of ash and death. Sweeps of gray and red covered the white snow, ash and blood having melted and molded in it. And there were splashes of rusted red against the white stone, courtesy of the guards and servants that had been outside when the attack came. Along the grounds were the charred and destroyed bodies of men, women, and horses, giving out a warning to all those who came to the home. There were signs set up all around the vicinity, stating that only authorized personnel were allowed to enter the area.

"It's worse than I thought."

The voice came from a man that stood atop a hill looking down towards the home, two women on either side of him. He fixed the dark shades over his eyes before glancing between the two women.

"Either of you picking up anything?"

"Nothing that I can sense," a young woman with overly long blonde hair answered, scanning the area over with milky blue eyes, "What about you, Sera?"

A slightly older woman popped her head up from the device she held, her green eyes shining in excitement of being able to use her new inventions out on the Van Aalsburg home, "I can see there are bodies inside the home, but none are moving."

"Kainen," the blonde began, keeping her eyes glued to the area outside the castle, "It's been over a week since the attack. Why haven't they cleaned this place up and put these people in proper graves? I can smell the stench of death all the way up here."

"I agree, Ashley," he said, letting out a small sigh, "But Master Maddox did warn me that the scene may look like this. We assume they don't want to move things until they have to in order to preserve what happened here. They don't want to miss any clues."

"They've had a over a week to get them," Ashley said, scrunching her nose up in disgust, "This isn't right."

"Again, I agree, but we have no authority over that right now, so we'll just have to deal," he said as a gun appeared in his bandaged right hand. It was his favored gun, the Magician Critic, a break action, single-shot double barreled pistol. He quickly loaded it with magic ice bullets, the bullets glowing a light blue, "Let's head in."

Sera and Ashley followed right behind him, the blonde soon plugging her nose from the horrible stench that hung in the air. A high-tech mask was then pushed into her free hand. She looked down at it before looking back at Sera, who was wearing the same mask.

"Thanks," she said before Sera moved to give Kainen one as well, "So I've been curious," she began after settling the mask over her lower face, "Why take me with you on this mission? I'm sure there had to be other people you could have taken with you. Or you could have even gone with just you two as a pair, isn't that your normal thing? And why even come to the Van Aalsburg home now? Aren't the Rune Knights handling things?"

"So many lovely questions!" Sera said, "With a curious mind like that, you should help me in the lab more often!"

Ashley thought about all the explosions she had heard from Sera's lab, her face falling at the thought of actually being in the room when one went off.

Kainen seemed to pick up on her worries, "You don't need to worry," he said with a smirk, his long black hair and sunglasses hiding most of the playfulness on his face, "She won't actually blow you up if you're in the lab with her. Though, I'd just suggest not touching anything in there."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," she mumbled, feeling like she was now definitely going to be dragged into an experiment, "So, my questions?"

"Ah, right," Kainen began, coming to a stop when they had reached just outside the castle doors. He turned to look back at her, "Well, the guilds are to keep out of these murders for the time being. That was decided at the guild master meeting Master Maddox had a bit ago, but he didn't like that answer and neither did Fairy Tail or Quatro Cerberus. We can't directly act on anything right now, but we can at least look for clues and gather information on our own. He doesn't want to be kept in the dark until it's too late.

"Fairy Tail called a meeting of to find out if any new information was available, hence why no one is here today. And Quatro Cerberus is keeping a look out for us just in case anyone ends up heading this way. They'll contact me if that's the case. And Thunder Stone was chosen to check the place out, get whatever information we can, and bring it back to tell all three guilds. There had to be a reason the Van Aalsburgs' were targeted and that's what we're here to figure out."

"Okay, that makes sense," Ashley said, "And it makes sense why he sent you two. You're an S Class and Sera is your usual partner. You're both good at finding information other people usually pass over. So then where do I fit in?"

"Master Maddox wanted a team of three and you seemed to fit the bill."

"But I'm only a D Class mage. What am I going to do here that a higher level mage couldn't?"

"Heal and defend!" Sera answered, "Your Arc of Light Magic balances us out!"

"You have skill, Ashley, be more confident in what you can do," Kainen added, "You'll come in handy, don't worry."

Ashley opened her mouth to answer, but a beeping coming from Sera's scanning device interrupted the conversation.

Sera looked down at it with worried concentration, "Kainen, there's a body in there."

"I thought you already established that."

"Yeah, but this one is alive."

"No one can still be alive here, right?" Ashley asked, "I mean, it's been over a week and the Rune Knights have searched this place from top to bottom several times."

"It's highly unlikely," Kainen said, "But there could have been a hidden room somewhere that was safeguarded by magic."

"But then why wait so long to come out? That doesn't make sense."

"It's not coming from any hidden room," Sera said, silencing the other two, "It's sitting in the main room…on the lord's throne."

The trio turned and stared at the half open doors of the castle, knowing they were going to need to go through them and find out who was in the castle. An icy shiver ran through them as they stepped inside the home and felt the presence of magic that was dark and pulsing with power.

More dead bodies filled the mansion, servants that worked for the Van Aalsburg family. Sera led them through the hallway, stepping carefully so as not to disturb anything. The magic power grew the closer they got to the main room. It was intimidating and overwhelming, causing Ashley to halt briefly in fear before Kainen nudged her forward.

They finally came to the main room and stood outside its doors for a good minute, silently trying to decide if they should really go in or not. Eventually, Kainen let out a deep breath and stepped forward. He still had his Magician Critic at the ready, though he felt that it would do little against whatever was on the other side of the door. He then pushed the doors open and walked into the main room, the two women walking in right behind him.

They first saw the Van Aalsburg family laid out across the middle of the room, each slain just as mercilessly as their servants. A small movement further into the room managed to pull them away from the gruesome sight. They looked up to see a rather posh looking man sitting on the throne, one leg over the other, head balanced on one hand while the other held a glass of red wine. The swirling of the wine was what had caught their attention, but now it was the stoic man that held their attention. He was clean and polished and popped out against the bloody massacre in the room. He glanced over them in boredom, not at all impressed by the trio.

"This is what your master sends? A scientist with no magic and a blind mage? Pitiful."

"Who are you?" Kainen asked, keeping his eyes locked on the man.

The man looked Kainen up and down before taking a sip of the wine, "You, though, you are a decent mage. Such a shame you will still have to be disposed of. I may talk my master into making a Nightmare of you."

"Who are you?" Kainen repeated in a harsher tone.

"I am many things, but you do not have enough time to learn all that I am. You may simply call me Jean if you need a name."

"What are you doing here?" Kainen said.

"Cleaning up the mess that you _humans_ have yet to take care of."

"Did you do this?" Ashley finally spoke up.

Jean eyed her, "So you are not totally useless then? You must use some form of echolocation with that light magic of yours."

"Answer her question," Kainen said, pulling the man's attention back to him, "And how do you know what she can do?" He tightened his hold on his gun as red flags were going off in his head. He knew he should get the team out of there then, but he wanted to be able to bring something back to Maddox. All the efforts that had gone into this mission would be for nothing if he left without some sort of information.

Jean saw his hand tighten on the gun, causing the posh man to wave his free hand. Instantly, five figures were standing on either side of him. They ranged in colors of white and gray, in sizes and shapes, but they all emitted a dangerous power, one that the three mages knew could easily kill them.

"If you think your gun can do damage, I assure you that mine will do more," he said coolly before finishing off the wine. He threw the glass off to the side as he stood up from the throne. He was tall and well built, considering how nicely his black suit jacket hugged his frame. His black dress shoes clicked as he walked down the throne stairs to stand on equal ground with the mages.

He pushed a hand to slick back his black hair, "To answer the first question, no, I did not do this. My work is not so careless and sloppy. As I said before, I am simply here to clean up the mess. It is _disgusting_ how long you humans have left your dead to rot here. This is proof of how badly this world needs cleansed, how it needs to be balanced out again."

Kainen stared at the man like he was crazy, "What are you talking about?"

Kainen stepped back in fear, causing the two women to step back with him. A smile had appeared on the man's face, one that was wicked and curling and mad as his eyes widened along with it. It was only for the briefest of moments, but it had been more than enough to put the others on edge more so than they already were. As soon as that smile had appeared, the stoic, bored expression returned to his face.

"You will find out soon enough. You all will find out soon enough. I will give you fair warning now," Jean said, gesturing to the dead that laid out before them, "Push back against my master or get in his way and you will end up like them. Not that you won't be like them in the end, but you may be able to survive a bit longer than the rest if you keep in line."

Jean waved his hand forward again, one of the figures standing behind him moving forward. This figure was made entirely of the top half of a human skeleton, the bones being a deep black. Surrounding the skeleton was a bright white fire. It floated just above Jean, seeming to stare directly at the mages despite having no eyes.

"I do hope you make it out of here. It would be such a waste if you do not get to see what my master has in store for your world," he said as he snapped his fingers. At that snap, the skeleton shrieked before releasing a wave of white-hot fire. Jean stared down the trio as they ducked and protected themselves from the gust of heat. He then made eye contact with Kainen, "We will be watching you. We will always be watching you and your guild."

With that, Jean and the monsters with him vanished in a whoosh of white flames.

Kainen pushed the women out the doors of the main room. He grabbed hold of Ashley's hand and took off at a sprint, knowing Sera would be hightailing out of there with him. He knew that Ashley could guide herself around easily, but with overly hot flames quickly taking over the place and not knowing if Jean was really gone or not, it was better for all of them if he pulled her along with him.

They jumped over a few corpses and had a couple close calls with beams of wood falling around them, but the trio had managed to make it out of the mansion before it fully collapsed. Though, Kainen continued to make them run, making it up a large hill away from the castle. They watched as the fire spread out across the land filled with dead while the castle fell in on itself. It didn't take very long for the entire place to be destroyed, and before they could fully comprehend what just happened, the white fire was gone, leaving behind nothing but ash and smoke.

The trio stood there for a long moment, silence enveloping them.

"Um…" Ashley began, trying to figure out how to form her sentence, "I…I'm sorry. I didn't really help at all."

Kainen and Sera stared at her before looking at each other.

"I don't think any of us could have done anything against that man or those…things with him," Kainen said.

"But we did get something to bring back to Maddox!" Sera said, hoping to break the tension some.

"We did," Kainen nodded at her, hearing high pitched whistling off in the distance, "And that's our cue from Quatro Cerberus to get out of here."

All three of them could here Rune Knights making their way towards the burned down mansion. Not wanting to explain their presence there or what had happened there, they quickly turned and made their way down the hill, running off into the forest and towards the train station just outside of Crocus.

Though, Kainen couldn't shake the feeling of unease and fear he felt as they made their way into the forest. The things Jean had talked about were ominous to say the least. And the power he and those things with him held was off the charts. And that smile, that mad smile. He was certain he would feel off for quite some time because of that smile.

'Pretty sure I'm going to have nightmares for a week,' he thought as they disappeared into the thick forest.

* * *

 **A/N:** And there we are! I hope you all enjoyed it!

 **Credits**

 **Kainen Wright – Gureifox**

 **Sera Rion – Gureifox**

 **Ashley Walker – Readingandgames1995**

Whoo! So glad I got this updated finally! I know it's been a long, long time since the last update. There is an explanation on my profile for what's been going on. I'd rather not re-write everything over again in my A/N, so please go check out my profile if you want to know what has been going on.

But I re-read everything for this update and I'm so glad I did. I got to fall in love with everything all over again! And I'm just so excited to be back to writing again! So I hope some of you are still around to enjoy the story as well.

I do have a poll up on my profile to see which stories you all are interested in seeing updated the most. It includes stories that I already have going on along with a few I have ideas for, though none of those are SYOCs. So please go check out the poll and vote on it. I'd really appreciate it!

I really hope the power difference between Jean and the others was apparent. Like he's ridiculous and there's just no way they would have been able to do anything against him. We will definitely be seeing a lot more from Jean, especially in this first arc of the story (well, really all the arcs), but he's like…well…his power level IS OVER 9000! So yeah, just hope you guys picked up on that.

Song Inspiration: Weak and Powerless by A Perfect Circle

There will probably be a lot of song inspirations from A Perfect Circle and Tool. They're really good when I need to do chapters like this.

I thank all of you for your wonderful reviews and for reading the story! I always love to hear what you all have to say and it makes me smile every time!

I think that's it for now.

Until next chapter!

Yours Truly,

MyDearWatson


End file.
